


Bugs and Space Elves

by happyendingexo



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, HEA_2017, M/M, OC side pairing, Romance, Science Fiction, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 00:24:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 54,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13846167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyendingexo/pseuds/happyendingexo
Summary: Human Kyungsoo has an untimely run in with space elf Kai (he literally cuts his neck when they first meet). But for some reason, saving the entire universe is up to them?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt #016**
> 
> **Warning(s):** Public masturbation, tiny bit of gore
> 
> **Disclaimer:** The is a work of fiction. The names and images of the celebrities mentioned are borrowed and is not meant to represent the celebrities themselves. All original characters and plot belong to the author and is not to be reproduced and/or shared without written permission from the author. No copyright infringement is intended.
> 
> **Author's Note:** This is so long and if you stayed the whole way through, I applaud you. This took me so long to write and there are still things I wish I had more time to edit and get more detailed. There are plot holes that I hope aren't too noticeable, but, whatever this is, I truly hope you liked it and could understand whatever the hell it is I tried to write. Thank you for getting this far, it really does mean a whole lot  <3 PS, a lot of inspiration came from Hamlet, and the Halo video games.

CHAPTER 1: Vehn

“Lampyridae, order Coleoptera. Not sure what species exactly but definitely Lampyridae.” The male breathed in. “Well, because it’s dark a f.” He then sighed and mentally cursed. “I mean, because it _is_ past midnight and the sun set at 7:34PM. It’s too dark to tell anything apart from anything…” The male had only wished he could write this down rather than record his voice into a microphone. “Specimen has landed, in sight. Approaching gently.” His microphone had been connected by earbuds, and further connected to his phone. In his hands was a small glass container and its lid, ready to capture the lightning bug. However, just before he could capture the small thing it disappeared under the leaf it had been walking on. The syncopated glowing of the bug’s stomach made the leaf glow in the cutest of fashions, muted.

And of course, just as the male was about to trap the bug in his vessel did another bright light catch his eye. He turned to see what was through the thicket of the forest. It was strange, this bright light was much too large and consistent to be a firefly. It was suspended mid-air, glowing and shimmering like starlight. It had shone not far from the male, just a few feet away back toward the direction he had come from. He had not wandered too far from his campsite, so it was an easy run if he needed to scram.

When the male looked back at his hands to see if he had caught the lightning bug, he had cursed to see that it was gone. The swear was vocal and he mentally slapped himself for being so vulgar on the microphone.

“Specimen has gotten away. However, I’ve discovered something else. An anomaly of generated light seems to be suspended just a few feet away. The object is rather small, yet it casts a glow of fog around it.” All thoughts on the lightning bug disappeared, he had been enthralled by this sudden piece of mystery as it flickered.

The male walked for the orb, slowly, through the thicket of the forest. Branches creaking and bushes ruffling as he maneuvered through. The cool late summer air was light in humidity, the foliage covered in a layer of dew. It grazed against his clothes and skin leaving small kisses of coolness as he brushed against them.

The closer he got the more curious his mind inferred. What on this good earth had been reflecting light so perfectly? What could have possibly been playing the coolest trick of light he had ever seen? It could not have been a lightning bug, it was too big and constant. Could not be a flashlight, too concentrated. But as he got closer he started to notice that the light was relatively small, and possibly more than a 2D reflection.

“What the…” He mumbled into his microphone. The atmosphere had a significantly different temperature as he got closer to the light. It was beyond freezing, like he had stepped through an invisible wall and suddenly into this frozen paradise of a summer night. What took him by even more surprise was the lack of movement. What little breeze was being offered had completely and suddenly disappeared, no crickets chirped, and no bats squeaked. But what got him unnerved was the suspension of lightning bugs midflight, paralyzed. They all had lights on their stomachs lit up and yet there was no movement or fading. The male just stopped in his tracks and looked at it for a hot second.

“Um.. I really don’t know what the fuck is going on here. But it just got freezing cold, like below freezing point and there are lightning bugs completely suspended in air and not moving. Lemme see if I can—” He took his phone, turned on his flashlight and opened his camera. He took pictures and took two videos of different bugs on the way over to the light. It was unnerving and exciting all the same, but he kept forward and wondered if the mysterious light had anything to do with the frozen-in-time landscape.

As he inched closer his mind raced even further with questions. All the way until he was standing just in front of the flickering orb.

His eyes glowed with the light in front of him, his breath lost and everything on his front shining in the light. It was indeed spherical, round and ping pong like. Odd enough, the closer he got to the light the hotter he felt. As his stomach was in line with the orb he could feel a sort of heat that nearly wanted to burn. Even as he stood just in front of it he dared not to get any closer as it produced a heat so hot he thought a hole would burn into his stomach. He had half a mind to take out his headphones and put away his phone, but as he tried to meddle with it he had noticed that his phone had been turned off. No mattered how long he held the button it simply would not turn on; the signature bitten apple would not appear.

After shoving his phone away, he focused back on the sphere, bringing up a hand and readying himself to touch the heat source. It may or may not have been fate that he did not get to touch it, but he was better off. Touching the object would have rather severe consequences. Instead, something entirely unexpected happened. Something unplanned and almost unwelcome.

It happened fast and it hit hard, like the impact of a baseball against a bat. Darkness swept the area, the light having disappeared, and the male was crashed into by something large, warm and solid. The force was so great that he tumbled back and fell against a tree, hitting the ground hard.

Within seconds of disorientation something cold and rather sharp was held against his neck. The heaving breath of two people threw the male off even more so when his head was yanked back by the very follicles of his hair.

“Shisen wena, ku’uma nothelion.” A voice suddenly blurted.

Something was wrong. Something felt very out of place. The male sat there, another male crouched on him and threatening him with a knife. Yet for some reason his mind could barely comprehend it.

“Shisen wena?” The voice came more aggressive than before. “Ku’uma nothelion?”

 He furthered by pressing the knife harder against the neck.

The male gasped, his heart pounding against his chest at the circumstance. “W-Wait!” He panicked. “Pl-Please I can’t understand you!”

“Kalan por thune!” The sudden stranger yanked the male’s hair down further.

“Please please please! Stop! Please, I’ll do anything. I’ll give you my money, it’s just down the path at my campsite. I’ll give it to you for no cost, just please let me go.” He spoke quickly and carefully, not to upset the knife that was held tightly against his Adam’s apple. “Please, I’ll do anything!”

The man held his eyes shut tight, the breath of the stranger hot on his face as he threatened.

Suddenly a small yet sharp incision was made on his neck. The man screamed in response. “Hey hey hey hey heY!! WAIT, WHOA. STOP, PLEASE, I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE SAYING I’LL DO WHATEVER JUST SHOW ME.”

The stranger leaned in and sniffed the blood that trickled down the man’s neck, it was very light and extremely small. Nothing serious, but painful like a paper cut.

“You.” The stranger suddenly said as he fixed his grip on the male’s head. “Show me leader.”

“W—... what…?

“Bring me you leader.”

“I’m sorry, what?? What do you mean??”

“You leader!” He pressed.

“What leader?! Who, who!?” The male panicked as the knife was pressed into his cut and letting the pain sear through.

“Leader!” The stranger yelled.

“Like who?! My professor?! Is that what you want?”

“What is Professor?” The stranger was suddenly calmer.

“He’s my teacher? You know professor?? He has a doctor’s degree in entomology and master’s in ecology? Passes his knowledge down to other people, you know _students_?” He slowed his words down; this person clearly had a heavy accent and little understanding of the English language.

“Teacher.. No, I want leader! You world leader, on true ruler.”

“W-We…” That was an odd question to suddenly ask. “We don’t have a world leader…” The male questioned more than stated. What kind of question was that? Was he daft? “Of course, we don’t have a world leader, is this some kind of sick joke?”

“Joke? No joke. I must speak with leader. Quick.”

“What the fuck you mean?? Like the fucking president? The queen of England? Prime Ministers? Like which leader? There are so many different leaders!! Where the hell did you even come from—?”

The stranger pulled his hair down and shoved the knife against his throat again. “No questions. I talk. One true leader, where?”

“There _is_ no one you stupid asshole!”

Suddenly the stranger let go, and the man could see his offender. His hair was long and silver in the small bits of moonlight that could shine through the tree tops. Eyes golden, and clear.

“You, what are you?” The long silver haired man demanded.

“What the fuck—”

“Answer question.”

“I’m a human!” He shrieked and nearly wanted to add “just like you” but something held him back.

“Human? I never hear of you species before. You communication with other planets, what is it?

“I’m sorry what?” He felt his neck gently, rubbing it to ease the cut.

“How advanced are you people? What extent of interstellar communication?”

“Whoa whoa whoa.” The man held his hands up. He was freaking out with how fast the man’s accent was changing to something near perfect. “What in the fuck is going on here? What do yOU mean who am I and communication? Who the fuck are you?!”

“No important. Only what I do is important. I ask kindly, one last time, bring me to you leader.”

“There is no leader, you.. Urgh!” The man breathed as he held his neck. “Say that you’re some celestial being, hm? Say that you seriously have no idea of how this place works. Then your answer is a straight up no. There’s an organization called the United Nations that convene and make a series of law and regulations for countries to follow, though. That’s honestly your best bet.”

“What you speak. Truth?”

“As _truth_ as can be.”

“Then take me to the United Nation.”

“No, no, no, no.” He shook his head. “That’s not how that works. You’d be interrogated by the CIA or FBI or Secret Service, or something! Waaaay before you could get in touch with anyone apart of the UN. Even then, who’s to say that they’ll listen to you—what are you doing?” He quickly changed. The stranger was fiddling with something on his hand. “What are you doing?” He raised his voice as the stranger ignored him and noises squeaked from his wrists.

“I must come to wrong place. This not Krakatos. You are not a part of the Eletrinsku Lal protocol. Therefore, you are not correct. I must fix this passing.” Within a moment, there was a flash, white light that blinded the human and followed a trail of white luminescent smoke.

“What the fu—,” in the next moment all bugs in flight froze. The air chilled just as it had done before this strange man had appeared. Another ball of strange light began to flicker in and out, this time more strained than the last. The man stayed on the ground where the stranger left him, watching and waiting for something to happen. His phone was dead once again. Another flash of bright white light appeared, a cloud of luminescent white smoke all about.

The stranger appeared through the white smoke, standing tall and looking carefully through his surroundings.

“Aaaaand, welcome back.”

The stranger was startled and looked for the voice.

“I have returned… There is something not right.”

“Yeah, you got that right. The fucking fact you keep doing that shit isn’t right.” The man rested his head against the tree he was leaned up against, closing his eyes and listening to the soft sounds of the early onset of crickets; it was too early in the season for the chirping. He needed a moment to process what was going on.

“My device is malfunctioned. It will not take me to my destination. This clearly is not where I must be…” His accent was almost near perfect, his English improving so much that the human wondered if he as himself might have accidentally died by falling off a cliff. This whole situation was quite ridiculous.

“So, you don’t actually need a leader then?”

“I do. My mission requires that I must meet every leader of every world.”

“Why..? Whywhywhywhy why why???” He rushed as he thought. “What is so goddamn urgent that a fucking alien has to speak to world leaders?”

“Doom. Upon all life.” Not a falter left his voice.

“Wh-What kind of doom?”

The stranger sighed. “There is a great being in the universe. It makes its way through by devouring all in its path to make itself large. The more it eats the bigger it grows. It is a parasite, feeding off all matter and leaving nothing behind… And it is making a coarse for this way. And I have been entrusted with a duty to warn all life forms of this doom.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, I’m sorry what the fuck? That’s… What do you mean? Like the end of the universe as we know it?”

The two looked at one another in the dim light of the forest.

“Yes.” The human felt his stomach churn. “You’re not kidding, are you?”

“I would not lie about such a thing.”

There was an awfully long silence. The stranger was waiting for some sort of response and the man was trying to wrap his head around all that had happened in the last ten minutes.

“I must be out of my mind..” He whispered. “Look, I can’t help you with anything. You’ll probably die here before you move on and warn another planet. But I can, like, make a Facebook page and other social media accounts promoting it. But that’s about it. That’s all I’ll do. You’re on your own. Understand?”

“This reluctance to save your people… Why is that? After you witness my appearance out of thin air, do you still not believe what I say?”

“No it’s not that. In fact, there’s so much that I don’t understand of this whole situation that I don’t know what’s real or not… But it’s a lot more than just that. It’s the fact that I know the rest of my world won’t believe you or believe anything that you have to say. You’ll never make it to government places without someone shooting you down or questioning you into oblivion. It’s not possible. Trust me. I can guarantee it. And even if you could convince them of what you are, they’ll see you as a threat, and wonder what else would be a threat. They’d probably dissect you like it was your one true purpose in life. You’d never make it out alive, figuratively and literally.”

“Then what would you have me do? Can you not get me to these government places?”

“No, not without the right clearance. I don’t even begin to know how to point you in the right direction. No one would believe me.. No one would believe you. And if they did you’re as sure as dead… it’s fucked.” The man whispered the last part. “If this thing is coming for us, then we’re truly fucked… Even if… Even if you could warn us, there’s nothing that we could do about it, is there? Obviously since you’re going around telling planets about this, then that means not even the technology to defeat it exists. Plus! We’re nowhere near as advanced as your people, we couldn’t even escape if we wanted too.”

The stranger was silent, his golden eyes wading and watching the small man hold his neck.

“These words you speak. Do you speak them in representation of your people?”

The man furrowed a brow. “...I shouldn’t. But I guess I am. You’re better off somewhere else.”

“Then so be it. The fate of this world was now put in your hands and you have made the decision… But I cannot go on until my device is repaired. For now, I require bed, food and cleanliness. Does your planet offer such hospitalities?”

The man grimaced. “Yeah, yeah, we do. Some cultures go as far as offering gifs to strangers. Like marriage proposals.” He chortled. “But not here. And especially not now. I can only offer you somewhere to sleep and a little bit of food. We’re in the middle of the woods right now. Pretty far from civilization so you’ll have to bear with it.”

“These woods you speak? Are your people solitary and barbaric here?”

“What?! No! God no.” He snickered. “I’m out here doing research for my senior thesis. I plan on gathering all my field research by camping out here.”

“Camping.”

“Yes. Where you leave all your modern technology and go out into the wilderness to be one with nature and what was originally here on this good earth.”

“But based on the molecular makeup of this planet these trees were not here first.” The stranger questioned with a tilt of the head.

The man spoke through gritted teeth, “They were here long before me…” He paused. “Wait a minute. Why should I offer you jack shit?! You cut me!”

“I wanted to see the effects of my knife against your outer form. As it turns out your makeup is mostly water, I wanted to test and see how fast it would take to kill you.”

The human dropped his jaw.

“This research you were doing then, you are a scholar are you not?”

“Sort of. A student of bugs.”

“A Student of Bugs.” The stranger bowed and held a hand across his heart, or, supposed heart. “Greetings.” He bowed his head low and rose with ease.

“Wait a minute, that’s not my name.”

“That is not your title?”

“N-No, it is! I am a student!”

“A Student.” He bowed again with the same hand gesture on his heart. “Greetin—”

“No no no, my name is Kyungsoo! Do Kyungsoo!!”

The stranger tilted his head. “This name is odd in your language you speak.”

“Yes, that’s because I’m Korean. Which is a much different language and culture from the one here.”

“There are many cultures here?”

“Thousands.” The man began to stand up, wiping his knees and trying not to irritate his neck.

“And you speak two cultures?”

“No no, languages. I speak two languages fluently. English, this one, and Korean.”

“Then cultures are…”

“What follows as tradition and behaviors of certain areas. You know, how people act and such? It’s what makes us diverse—wait a minute.” Kyungsoo shook his head. “Does—did—does that…? Does that mean you didn’t know English just ten minutes ago?”

“Is English the name of your language you speak?”

“Yes…?”

“How have you come to this conclusion?”

“Because you didn’t know the difference between culture and language. And because you’re from another fucking world and because your accent is quickly disappearing.” Kyungsoo was breathing deeply again, his chest rising and falling, but his eyes never left the person in front of him.

“Your conclusion is correct. You are quick to observe. You may be useful, yet.” The alien held himself firm before looking out and surveying as much as the distance could allow him. “All languages have a basic structure. Especially the less developed societies such as this one, based on your speech pattern. Learn the algorithm to language-structure and you can accommodate to any and almost all languages.”

“...Wait..” Kyungsoo blinked for a moment. “You mean there’s like an equation to follow and you plug in the numbers in order to learn a language?”

“If this is how you must see it, then yes. It is true.”

“How in the fuck—”

“Although I am not perfect, my people are fast learners. Our evolution has developed our ability to comprehend our surroundings.”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “Of course. Great. Wonderful. Perfect. Can’t wait to see what amazing things you’ll do.” He walked forward, waving a hand as he talked but not directing it to anything.

The stranger said not a word and followed Kyungsoo promptly. The crunching of dried leaves and ruffling of bushes made him irritated and itchy with the way it scratched at the open parts of his skin.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kyungsoo spat as he turned to face the stranger.

“I’m following you, to shelter and food.”

Kyungsoo scoffed in the stranger’s face. “You were serious about that.”

“Yes. No finer of a host.” The stranger and his white hair smiled curtly and nodded his head. There was nothing great about it but the snark that presumed from him.

Kyungsoo closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have a headache.” He mumbled to himself. “I’m going to get into so much trouble for this.” He sighed and walked forward.

“Worrying about the troubles of things like this is insignificant to the troubles that lie ahead.”

They walked in silence as Kyungsoo brought out the flashlight on his phone and lead the way. His phone had been working perfectly fine again.

“Are you not curious of my name?”

“Not particularly. The less I know the better. Lesser chance of getting attached… Unless you’re some sort of alien parasite that will suck my brains out if I don’t get your name. Or if you’re some galactic king or whatever and what I do might start an entire galactic war.”

Kyungsoo was not too sure, but he could have sworn the breathiest and lightest of chuckles came from behind him. “Like I said before. Petty things like that won’t matter. There is a true threat that none of us can hope to stop if we cannot escape… I may not even have a home come the time I travel back.”

Down the way a small orange light flickered in a relatively small opening. It truly was not far from where they were. A small blue tent was pitched and a fire that was dying out had a pot full of leftover dinner. The first thing that Kyungsoo did upon arriving, beside fixing his face because he did not how to react to the aliens last words, was stoke the fire and get it roaring again.

“I have leftover sausage and potatoes in this pan. I can heat it up if you like.”

“I would enjoy that. What are these items?” He took a seat closer to the fire than Kyungsoo thought necessary.

“This.” He stabbed a sausage with a fork. “Is bratwurst. Different kinds of meat, seasoned and cased and smoked. It comes from animals. This.” He stabbed the potatoes. “Is a root. You boil it until it’s soft and mash it together with butter and salt and it’s tasty. It’s hearty and plentiful.”

“That sounds delicious enough.”

“Do you not have these? Sausages?”

“Yes, my world has this delicacy. Although, I’m sure the components are much different. My taste may not accompany it.”

“I bet it’ll be fine, thi—”

For the first time, Kyungsoo had looked up and stared straight into the alien’s face. The light of the moon, and the little light of the now working fire brought together all the glimpses and pieces he had been trying to discern since the moment they met.

He, or whatever it was, was beautiful. His face was long, and round, pointed and prominent in every aspect. Lips thick and eyes crested as beautiful slits of agony. He did not bear a happy expression, perhaps it was his face, perhaps it was his past; the point being, he was not a very happy looking person. His hair was stark white, long, and drenched over his shoulders and back, tied back in braid like patterns and held by metal pieces of brilliance. Bangs that easily covered his forehead and danced like droplets of water when the wind grazed by. His eyes were the same, sparkling a similar amber color of the fire, light and clear. Yet a dark haze surrounded the outer skin, like a dressing of makeup. Markings littered his face in small dashes in a light shade of luminescent blue, intense in its bright color. He was large, at least near six foot seven, it explained the undeniable weight just moments ago. He was built, strong and muscular, six prominent abdominal muscles that bore through his outfit. Biceps and triceps that laid in resting position yet still intimidating. His clothes were raunchy, risqué even. Pants that stopped at his calves and tied off like balloons, white and crested in a dark color, too dark to properly figure out. His shoes were wrappings, dark and light. His shirt was mostly open, tucked into the hem of his pants yet the ends never connected. They left a long “v” down his middle and showed off the contour of each muscle and glorious bone. Or maybe it was all one piece made to look like two. Around his waist was a darkly red colored wrap, another chain of gold looking metal wrapped around it with another darkly colored bag on top and attached to his hip. On his shoulders was a cape, red—bright red, and pinned with a gold chain. His arms were bare except for the light tattoos that circled the upper areas and lead down. On his left wrist was device Kyungsoo had never seen before, thick enough to be a bracer yet bulky enough to be a clock.

He seemed important by the way he was dressed, yet utterly risqué with how much body he protruded. It made Kyungsoo sneer, jealousy really. He was thin, frail and tiny. This alien could have snapped him in mere seconds if he truly wanted, too.

“Po..tatoes…” The stranger finished.

Kyungsoo closed his jaw after realizing it was open and shook his head. “Y-Yeah…” He breathed in. “What was I talking about?”

“If my planet had potatoes?”

Kyungsoo stared the man down, waiting for an answer.

The stranger knit a brow, confused at the stare off.

Kyungsoo motioned his head forward as if beckoning the alien to answer his own question.

“Well do you?”

“We-We have roots, that we cook, but not potatoes. I’m sorry is something the matter? I don’t understand what just happened.”

“Nothing, nothing. It’s nothing.” Oh how Kyungsoo would never admit how he just spent a good long while checking out an alien. “I’m sorry but, where are you from? You look completely human to me. Just freakishly tall.” Kyungsoo blinked as he put the potato back in the pot and began to stir the items about.

“I come from planet Eleto. Yiq ahn li kom, mak erith thian .”

Kyungsoo froze, looking up at the stranger as if he had seen a ghost, paler than usual.

“If my translation is correct, that means Quadrant 1 3 7, System 8-Erith. You’ll have to forgive me, but I do not know the direct translation of erith.”

Kyungsoo nodded in understanding. “Is that the name your so-called protocol developed?”

“Yes. It is. It is part of a vast numerical library that sorts out every planet that there ever was, is and eao.”

“E-Eao?”

“It is Allevanen for future. However, it’s meaning is much more complex. It describes what will be, all while being a noun and verb.”

“A-Allevanen?”

The alien nodded. “The language of my people, my city.”

“Might I ask.” Kyungsoo cleared his throat as it had turned an octave higher, basically, it cracked. “What _are_ you then?”

The stranger sat up straight and kept a firm stare on the latter. But as he sat up perfectly straight, his hair fell back and flat against his head; out poked, two, rather pointy, looking ears from the sides.

“I am a etohn, as human is to you. And I am an Allve, from the county of Allé… My people rule as the dominant race, my father the high king of Eleto.”

“You’re a fucking elf—wait a minute, did you just say your dad was the high king?” He stumbled over his words, his thoughts going too fast for him.

“Yes.”

Kyungsoo could not take his eyes off the pointed ears.

“So then you’re like… The prince? Like crown prince, like the real important prince, like the one who’s going to take over one day.”

“If there is a place left when I return, then yes.”

“Jesus fuck, I could start a war—!”

“Like I said Little Student, there are much bigger things in the universe than war right now.”

“Little student—?”

“At first light tomorrow, I shall tend to my device and hope to be on my way once more. In the meantime, I would gather your friends and family and try to get out of here.”

“How? I already told you we didn’t discover that kind of technology yet.” Kyungsoo snapped, the sizzling of the sausage splattered oil on his hand.

“Then I would pray to whatever gods you believe in and hope they come to your rescue.”

Kyungsoo sat back in the dirt, his brows so terribly furrowed that his headache was starting to worsen. What if this was fake, what if this was all a terrible dream? It was possible, right?

“Jesus fuck…” He muttered.

“These words you say, jesus fuck, they are aggressive words of speech?”

“I guess… I picked it up from my friends. Fuck is a swear, definitely. Jesus is a religious thing, so like, basically I’m saying a blasphemous thing? I dunno, I’m not religious.”

“You are not religious?”

“Nah, most people aren’t nowadays.”

“I would start then.”

Kyungsoo grimaced at how utterly serious the man was, it was kind of a rude statement if you had to ask him.

“Here, I don’t have plates, so eat out of this.” He removed the pot from the fire and placed the cooking fork in the pot for the man. He had walked over and bent over to place the hot pot, his eyes never leaving the man. His skin was definitely a shade or two darker, and flawless. He produced a certain kind of smell, not putrid or rancid, but closer to the way a ripe mango tasted. It was an odd description, but it was the first thing that came to his mind.

“Please do not be offended by my odor. I have not cleansed in sometime; my smell will probably be unusual to you.”

“U-Uh oh! N-No! I wasn’t offended at all. You just… You smell like fruit.”

“Fruit is food. What kind?”

“Sweet, and tasty.”

“Sweet. What defines as a sweet taste?”

“Uh… Well it’s the opposite of that. That’s salty.” Kyungsoo stepped away and back to his spot across the fire on a log. “Oh.. You know what, you might have different tastes than we do.. Well whatever you taste when you eat that, that’s salty and savory. The opposite is sweet.”

“Opposites.. I know these kinds of tastes. We have six different ways food taste on my world, each of them have an opposing taste.”

Kyungsoo slowly nodded wondering how many flavors Earth really had. There was sweet, sour, salty, bitter, creamy, savory, gamey, was rotten or fermented considered a taste? What was rotten fish considered? What about spicy? Was that considered a taste? He could not remember for the life of him. But as he thought he almost missed what the stranger was doing, sniffing and nibbling a small piece of the sausage. Kyungsoo chuckled internally at it, after all, a big guy probably could go down by a terrible allergy or food poisoning. But as the alien further inspected the meat he took bolder bites.

“Is it good?”

“This is interesting.” He took another bite. “I would not eat this ever again, but it will satisfy me enough.”

Kyungsoo verbally chuckled, “Try a potato then.”

The alien went ahead and did so. He did not like the way the texture felt in his mouth and made a disgruntled face.

Kyungsoo laughed a little harder at the man’s face. “Not good?”

“No, I like the flavor. It reminds me of malaeth back home. The texture, not so much. It is odd, like rocks on my tongue.”

Kyungsoo’s neck lurched forward with his curiosity. “Well that is very \unexpected. To us they’re smooth and easy to chew.”

“Yes it is quite easy on my mouth, but the bursts of rocks feel like sand..”

“If you can’t eat it, don’t worry. I have something else.”

“No, this shall do Little Student. I am in happiness at what you have given me.”

“Didn’t sound so happy…” He mumbled to himself.

“This word you called me earlier, elf. What is this?”

“Oh.. Well… An elf…” Kyungsoo grimaced again, his lips contorting as he tried to think of something. “An elf is typically… this magical creature in folklore. They hang out around forests and are elegant and beautiful and are good marksmen and are just kind of a superior race in most fantasy.”

“Well, I could not tell you about elegance or superiority, but most are intimidated by us. But yes, my people are heavy in forested areas and are quite intelligent. And if I had a bow to replicate my marksmanship, well, then I would be able to prove a point. It seems this race of ‘elf’ you speak of may not be so far from legend.” He piled another fork full of potato and sausage in his mouth.

“Maybe… I doubt it though.” He mumbled again, poking at the fire.

A silence was strewn between the two as the alien ate, Kyungsoo felt so unbearably uncomfortable. Like he had so much to ask but did not know where to start or what was appropriate. What was the point of even asking if apparently the world was ending?

“So! ...Wh-What uh… Um…” Kyungsoo cursed under his breath as he tried to find a way to start conversation again. “So like, how far is your world from mine?”

“I do not know this. This world is not a part of the Eletrinsku Lal protocol. My assumption is that you are out of reach of the Eletrin Organization, which is about.. Well, I could not directly translate it but the number is litach imn. Imn is a measurement of distance according to the Eletrin Organization, it is recognized by all a part of the protocol. If I had access to more knowledge of your people I might be able to make conversions.” He was polite, he always talked after he was done chewing, and ate after he was done speaking. If he was truly hungry, he never seemed like it.

Kyungsoo looked over to his side where his phone lay. It was a good start if the alien wanted more information. Measurements and such would have to wait for a demonstration when he had an opportunity.

“Um, if you want to know more, you can use my phone.” He held the device up.

“Your glass box? You call it a phone?”

“Yeah, it’s an evolved way of communicating with anyone in the world. You dial numbers into it and then it connects to whoever you want. But you can also search information on it. We have an internet that stores millions of items of information and all you have to do is ask a question and it gives information. Watch:” Kyungsoo held up his phone and held the home button on his iPhone. “Siri, what is the name of our solar system?” He released the button and listened to the ding as Siri processed the question.

“Alright, here’s what I got:” The phone responded in a computerized voice. Kyungsoo proceeded to get up and lead with his phone out to show the alien.

“Do you mind if I sit?”

“You may sit.”

Kyungsoo sat next to the man and held his phone up that showed a series of articles about the Milky Way. He read them aloud and watched as the alien processed everything. The alien let a hand go of what he was eating and quickly grabbed the phone, reading and scrolling through the articles. He was catching on quickly, seeing that it was touch screen, and everything could just about be clicked. If he could read, that was another situation.

“Siri, what is the human population on Earth?” The alien suddenly asked.

“Hmm.. Let me think. The population of the world is about 7.28 billion people.”

“Is this accurate?” The alien looked over to Kyungsoo.

“Yeah, that’s pretty accurate.” Kyungsoo chuckled as he watched the alien try and figure out how to click things. “It reads your skin, that’s cool.”

“What do you mean?” The alien shifted to look at Kyungsoo, his hair and jewelry jingling in harmony as he did so.

“It means that you and I really are not that different. You can’t move that screen around unless it’s with skin or a stylus. Even your tongue can be used! But not a solid nail, or a rock or a blade of grass could move it. Actually, watch this.” Kyungsoo got up and began to rummage through his book-bag near the tent.

The alien sat in his spot and began picking up sticks and small rocks and trying to rub them on the screen. “Your people are more advanced that I gave you.”

“Heh, I’m sure we’re still far behind. We can’t even get people to Mars yet.”

“Mars.”

“Another planet in our solar system.”

“But you know you are not alone here, that is a start.”

“No, most people think we’re alone. The planets in our system don’t support life. Or none that replicates ours enough.” Kyungsoo groaned as he stood up with a water bottle in his hands. “Oh hey, easy there, that’s an expensive phone. It’d be nice if the screen wasn’t scratched up.”

The alien stopped and looked up at the man.

“What is that?” He tossed the rock to the side.

“Water, in a bottle. You drink this. But watch this first.” He took the phone from the alien and placed a corner of the bottle on the phone screen, moving it around and watching as the app icons moved side to side.

“But that is not skin.”

“Nope, it’s not. I have no idea why that works.” He handed the phone back and let the alien mess around with it more, using the bottle to move things around and click. After a moment of letting the alien play he took the bottle and opened it. “Drink.”

The alien took the bottle and sniffed it, he shook it around and gave it a thorough inspection before placing his lips at the opening and allowing a small amount into his mouth. He ripped the substance away and coughed as it covered his clothes.

“Uh oh, please don’t start melting.” Kyungsoo got up to take the water away as the alien kept coughing.

“This…” The alien panted. “This is not very pleasant. It is…” His eyes were squinted, and mouth puckered as he tried to lick his lips.

“It looks like it tastes sour to you. Are you alright?”

“Y-Yes. I am fine. That was just.. Interesting. I shall finish drinking it.” He took the bottle from Kyungsoo and proceeded to finish it off.

“You don’t have to put yourself through that.” Kyungsoo grimaced as he watched the alien.

“No, it tastes alright now. I just had to get used to it. It tastes like the drink back home. Alem. But this is defiled in some way. Like it had turned bad.”

“Alem?”

“Yes. I would go out on a limb and say the similarity is that both are water, alem to my people is water to yours.

“Mm..” Kyungsoo nodded and left the alien to his spot.

Another silence impregnated them, this time the alien was immersed in Kyungsoo’s phone, taking in all the information he could possibly find. In another moment he asked a question.

“Little Student. What age are you?”

Kyungsoo snorted. “Twenty-three.”

He nodded and went back into the phone.

“Why, how old are you?”

“Translated, I am thirty-five. But by earth standards, two-hundred and ten.”

Kyungsoo’s mouth dropped.

“My people seem to have extended life spans in comparison to you. It takes about six earth years for my planet to rotate around our sun. But we do not go by that system. It is much more complicated than that.”

Kyungsoo had closed his mouth at some point and wiped the drool coming from his lip.

“So like, geez.” He stuttered, not knowing what to say. “So then, like, well… You look great for two-hundred and ten.”

“Yes, an Allve is not considered an adult until they are thirty. Similar to some places on Earth where it is sixteen or eighteen.”

Kyungsoo nodded his head in understanding. It was very interesting to hear this, he just was not sure of how to express that.

“North and South Korea. These places speak Korean.”

“Oh, yeah. I was born and raised in South Korea.”

“Then are we in South Korea? You aren’t speaking the language right now.”

“No, we’re in Canada.” Kyungsoo giggled as he laid on the ground and played with an entirely black beetle scurrying around. “Nova Scotia to be exact.”

“This is on the other side of the… Pak.. Pack.. Pacific.”

“Pacific. The c makes an “s” noise.”

“That is odd… Can I ask why you are not in your homeland?”

“I’m doing my graduate studies here in the University of Halifax. I’m an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology grad student with a focus in bugs.” He said as he held up his hands and watched as the black beetle maneuvered around them.

“This is a bug then?” The alien motioned to small black thing on his hand.

“Yup.”

“Did you choose this profession? Your people have free will then?”

Kyungsoo was shocked to hear such words. “Well.. Of course, we have freewill. Most people can choose what they want to do with their lives.”

“You say most.” The alien inquired.

“Well… Some people can’t help their situation and have to do other things. Like.. Well some people resort to prostitution for money. Some people resort to drugs.. I dunno it’s different. Oh! Like rich people, or royalty. They often have to uphold family traditions or have arranged marriages. It’s not as common anymore but there are some people who have to give up what they want for the sake of others.”

“I see.” The alien nodded. “Then you, your interest is in bugs. Why is that?”

Kyungsoo was silent for a moment as he played with the beetle. “Most kids,” He started as he let the beetle go. “Have the courage to play with bugs when they’re young. They’ll pick up worms or daddy long legs and show them off. I guess I never grew out of that phase.”

The alien chose silence; whether he understood Kyungsoo’s words was uncertain, but he, instead, sunk his head back into Kyungsoo’s phone.

Kyungsoo laid on the ground, looking up at the stars and watching as they twinkled in the summer night. He was lost in his thoughts as he stared up, not knowing just how much time was passing by. But by the time he started to become self-aware again, his back hurt and butt was numb from lying down so he got up slowly to not aggravate his headache.

“Alright, well I’m going to go get a couple lightning bugs again. So, if you’ll excuse me.” The pale man wiped his rear and the back of his legs of dirt and went to go look for more small jars again.

However, as he rummaged for a few jars, a lightning bug had gone ahead and landed on the side of his tent, right in front of his face. His excitement grew and caused him to quickly search for a jar. But just as he was about to pull it out, something sharp had flown in front of his nose and stabbed the beetle right in its thorax. Kyungsoo quickly looked at the alien, noticing as he was bringing a hand back.

“Did you.. Did you just do that?!” Kyungsoo nearly yelled at him.

“Yes. It was glowing.”

“I needed it for my research!” Kyungsoo stomped a foot. “This is the second time. _Second!_

 Time. Why did you do that?!”

“Because it resembled these insects on my home planet with similar features. They are much larger, but their stomachs have a hole that spit a flammable luminescent liquid when disturbed. They are dangerous.”

“These are not them! Ughhhh!” As cool as those sounded he was just too frustrated to want to ask more. Instead he found his jars and stormed off into the woods with a small flashlight.

 

Not half an hour later did Kyungsoo return to find the alien in the same spot he had left him, still rummaging through his phone.

“You have returned. I want to apologize for distressing you. It was not my intention—”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s fine. I’m surprised you’re still here though.”

“I have nowhere else to go.”

“That was rhetorical.” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes as he placed his jars of lightning bugs in his book bag.

“What do you plan on doing with those?” The alien asked as he watched the latter.

“Well, it’s kind of a fucked up. But I’m going to wait for them to die, they’ll either starve or suffocate.”

“And this will promote your research.”

“Yup.” There was an indifference to Kyungsoo’s voice.

“You are still displeased with me.” Nothing seemed to have changed in his tone though.

“No, I’m just.. I’m tired and cranky. It’s been a long hour.” Kyungsoo sat himself in front of the fire and held his head. He noticed that fresh wood had been placed in the fire. As he noticed this he looked up at the stranger, watching as his eyes searched back and forth through whatever he was looking at on the phone. He might have stared for a bit too long because it caught the attention of the white-haired man. They made eye contact for a moment and it caused Kyungsoo to look away, ashamed and embarrassed. “Look.” He started. “I know I said I didn’t want to know your name but.. What is it?”

“Moka’inim Akimai’ith.”

“M-Moca.. Mokainikak?? Yeah, huh, you got a nickname? Something shorter??”

“Kai.”

“Yeah.. Kai…”

֍ ҉ ֎

Sleeping arrangements had been made. The alien-elf slept in the tent beside Kyungsoo to make sure he was not bit by any bug. A fatal reaction worried both if they could not prevent one. But late into the night, close to four in the morning, Kyungsoo had stirred to life (after a rather interesting dream) to use the bathroom. The dream consisted of him being on a table and dissected by aliens. The only catch was that there were no aliens. Instead, they were humans who were dressed in black suits and sunglasses. It was a little frightening, to be honest. But Kyungsoo could brush the dream off easily and found his way outside the tent to take a leak. He made sure to walk far enough away with a flashlight in hand to do his business. After conversing with Kai for most of the night, he learned that Kai had enhanced hearing, a trait that meant his peaceful poops would have to go further into the woods. So, he traveled far out to find a tree to pee on and to not be heard or smelled by Kai later. He yawned as he released and mistook the noise he thought he heard. But as he relaxed his face and finished up he could not help but notice there were more sounds of what sounded like barking dogs. He turned his head and saw in the distance were lights from the cars driving to the very closest they could while the voices of people yelled out to one another. Kyungsoo quickly zipped his pants up and made his way back to the camp. He was very confused as to what the problem might be knew if they got any closer he would never get any sleep with the dogs. But the closer he got to camp the more he thought about it. Various cars, yelling voice and dogs? It was probably a search party. A child or someone might have been lost. Maybe a murderer was on the loose. But as he neared the camp and found the burnt embers of his fire still barely glowing he started to hear a distant thundering noise. It was repeated and pulsed like a heartbeat. The closer the sound came the more he realized it was in fact the thumping sound of helicopter pillars. Kyungsoo’s mind started to race again as he neared his tent. Maybe it was a serious search party. Or. He thought suddenly, they were looking for Kai? His power or transportation somehow seemed to have stopped time completely and it was probably possible that it disturbed some magnetic fields or something and made government hardware go haywire. It made sense to him even if he could not necessarily get it all out.

As Kyungsoo entered his dark tent he could not help but notice the lack of another body. Kai was missing. He scrambled out and called out to the forest for Kai. The sound of the helicopter getting louder as he did so.

“Kai! Kaaaai!” Kyungsoo whisper-yelled loud enough so that it would not be too hard to hear.

But as he searched around for the man in the little light he had been provided, a small acorn had bopped him on the head.

“What the…” Kyungsoo quickly held the spot and looked up, only to find a glimmer of white amongst the trees.

“You, did you send for those?” Kai’s voice came from up top.

“What? No!” The sound of the helicopter gained closer and closer, the light of a spotlight shining off in the distance.

“What are they?”

“Probably the fucking FBI here to investigate whatever disturbance you caused, and I’m not about to get in trouble for your mess.” The helicopter seemed like it would appear any moment with how loud it was, Kyungsoo quickly moved away from the opening in the trees, careful to not get caught in the helicopter. He hid in a shrub, small and low to the ground, not caring about what might get stuck or bite him.

The helicopter strode by, the spotlight shining brightly all over the camp but moving on ahead.

When the coast seemed clear Kyungsoo shot out and ran for his items.

Kai jumped down from the tree and watched as Kyungsoo scurried.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting out of here. Last thing I need is to have my stuff confiscated because you touched it or something. So, you can either join me and run, or fend for yourself.” He stood up with his bag slung over his shoulder and filled with the most important pieces. “Honestly, you could use all the help you can get. This is a foreign world to you. Might as well stick to an ambassador.”

Kai bore no immediate expression, but his mind was going, searching for just that right answer.

“Fine.”

Kyungsoo took that as all he needed and walked on, hurriedly in a direction opposite from the helicopter and different from the dogs.

“Where will you go?”

“The camp grounds. There’s a lot of people in that area so we can lose any scent in that area, but we’ll have to keep going if we want to get to my car and essentially back to my apartment.”

“Very well. What are these dogs?” He emphasized the dog as he hurried on. Scrapping against and trailing through thorn bushes and branches.

“They’re animals. They have excellent hearing and smell. Not as intelligent as humans but they have qualities that make them kinder and better. They’re really great at things, we usually keep them as pets, but most places see them as part of the family.”

“Then why do they chase people?”

“Well, they usually get brought out because humans don’t know what they’re looking for. And clearly we can’t sniff out a person or item like a dog can because their senses are so acute.”

“The dogs sound like great beings. I would very much enjoy meeting one, one day.”

“One day, if we can get out of this.” Kyungsoo chided.

Not long after the two had scaled a good portion of the forest trail and hid from the helicopter did they find the campgrounds. Kyungsoo was mildly surprised with his ability to navigate and Kai was fascinated by the RV’s, camper’s and various looking tents. Most people were asleep, others had been lounging out with a beer and stargazing. Relatively peaceful, save the mosquito’s. A group of college students were blasting music on another end and drinking alcohol, Kyungsoo thought they would be a great spot to lose a scent. And much to his disgust he was right. They were ripe with alcohol and barf. Obnoxious and sweaty. It interested Kai but ultimately, he would prefer to not stick around; the smell was not pleasant to him. The behavior was animalistic to him. They did not spend a long time and only mocked about long enough to mix up smells. They made little conversation and quickly went on their way to the parking lot. His car was small and gray, a slight tint of green touching it but that was not at all visible in the moonlight. Kyungsoo pulled out his keys and unlocked his doors, at this time he was running for his car. He hopped in and turned it on, hoping five days’ worth of no use would not hurt it too much. He was lucky that it seemed fine. Kai however, did not follow and jump in the car. Instead he stood just in front of the hood on the gravel parking lot and inspected the contraption. Kyungsoo, annoyed by his reaction, leaned over and opened the passenger door.

“Get in!”

This jolted Kai and caused him to scurry into the car. He ducked his head, gave a few sniffs and slowly allowed his body into the metal car. He stepped on the seat and proceeded to squat in the car. Kyungsoo watched in astonishment, his mouth slightly agape at how ridiculous the situation was.

“Sit.” Kyungsoo slowly instructed.

Kai sank his butt down so that his knees stayed up and feet still on the seat.

“Feet down.”

Kai shook his head.

“Down.” Kyungsoo threatened as he pointed to his legs. The man looked wonky and uncomfortable with how tall he was.

Kai slowly let his feet sink down, one after the other and jolting when the crinkle of plastic bottles scared him.

“You’re fine. It’s just an empty water bottles. Put your seatbelt on. He brought his own around and showed how to click it. Kai, of course, followed easily.

“What is this restriction?”

“It’ll help prevent further damage if we crash.” He spoke as he checked his mirrors and put the car in reverse.

“Are crashes common in these?”

“Common enough for safety precautions. Don’t worry, I’ll try to get you around as safe as possible.”

Kai did not respond and instead held tightly into anything he could get his hands on as Kyungsoo drove off. The deep breathing of the elf next to him was almost humorous as they drove through the forest.

The ride had been silent for the most part, half an hour of gasps and intense stares of the passenger. Kai did not ask questions, but he mostly panicked when he thought someone would hit the car. The ride was mostly smooth, not many people drive on the roads of Halifax so early in the morning. And all Kyungsoo wanted to do was drink hot coco and lay down in his comfy bed. Sleeping on the forest ground was really playing a number on his body.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yes.”

“Wanna stop and get food?”

“Is that wise?”

“Yeah, I think we lost them. Then again, I don’t even think they knew to look for us in the first place. _If_ they were after us.”

“Where would we go for food?”

“McDonalds. That’s usually open at this hour.”

֍ ҉ ֎

“So uh.. You guys just getting back, or going to ComicCon? Or some convention?” The cashier asked as they stared at the two customers.

The McDonald’s was vacant, only a worker in the dining area had been scrubbing down tables as another was working in the back preparing the order. The white noise of machines working, and the clatter of paper being rustled made the scene all too terribly awkward.

“Uh, yeah. There’s uh.. thing..” Kyungsoo said meekly as he turned slowly to gaze at Kai. There the alien stood, tall and overbearing, his face stern with deadpan and brows furrowed in a sort of angry look.

“Perfect weather for that kind of outfit.” The cashier said, they were ridden in rosacea and lanky with greasy hair. But their attraction to the tall, dark and handsome man was quite apparent.

Kyungsoo grimaced at the cashier and watched as the cook walked over with a bag full of their food. The woman’s eyes who brought the food over never left the alien. It was true that he stuck out like a sore thumb and what was even more true was that he was devilishly good looking. It made Kyungsoo all the more upset.

“So uh, you come here often?” The cashier casually dropped. It was so casual that Kyungsoo totally would have missed the fact that the cashier was hitting on Kai, but his brain was quick enough to catch it. He rolled his eyes and grabbed the bag of food and snatched the bottles of water and orange juice.

Kyungsoo stormed out of the restaurant with Kai following closely behind.

Once they were in the car, Kyungsoo spoke, “You’ve been on Earth for how long now and the first human interaction you have had people ogling over you.”

“No, my first human interaction, I’m pretty sure, you had very negative feelings for me.”

Kyungsoo opened his mouth to retaliate but quickly closed it when he realized that the first human interaction was with himself. He shook his head and drove off for his apartment.

When they had arrived at the apartment complex, the sun had just been showing the lightest color of blue sky. Kyungsoo looked defeated, his dark circles quite prominent. He turned the car off and trudged out with the bag of food in hand and keys curled into the other, he decided he would grab his bag later. He walked on, straight to the front door of his apartment complex and to the second floor in which his lived. Kai followed a bit further behind, listening and jerking his head back every time he would pass a door to someone else’s home.

Kyungsoo opened his door with a bit of a struggle, it needed an extra push in order to open. Once his apartment had been revealed the smell of stale air and must hit their noses.

“Oh, mind the smell. I haven’t been home for a while.”

“I am alright.”

The walls were stark white, a stain here and there from previous owners, the carpets a cream color filled with the stench of years of service. The kitchen was to the right, a wall separating it from the rest of the room, a small living room area behind it and then an even smaller hallway for a bathroom and master bedroom. There was little furniture, a cream sofa, a small coffee table, and floor lamp. There had been a little dining table across the kitchen, a dark color to match the rest of the furniture.

“Heddy?” Kyungsoo called out and proceeded to make a clicking noise with his tongue.

As Kyungsoo disappeared into his room (after placing the food on the table) Kai stayed stagnant in the room, taking in his surroundings. He was cautious, so very cautious.

But as he stepped further into the room, a small black thing began to pace towards him, cautiously and smoothly on four legs. Kai immediately retreated, backing up so fast that he found his back smashed against the front door.

“What is this devilry?!” He pulled out a knife and held it out threateningly.

Kyungsoo went speeding back into the living room, looking to see what was wrong.

He assessed the situation quickly and made eye contact with the small black cat that was stalking towards Kai.

“Heddy.” Kyungsoo sighed out. “Get over here, come say hi to me first.” He got on his knees and beckoned for the feline to approach. The cat immediately responded with a mew and trotted quickly over to her owner. “Put that away, she won’t hurt you.” Kyungsoo snapped at Kai.

Kai was confused for a moment as he watched the feline nuzzle her head on Kyungsoo’s hand and walked all over his lap.

“What is it?”

“This is my pet cat, Hedwig. But I call her Heddy. So that way there’s not too much similarity to the owl.”

Kai seemed confused by that statement.

“It’s nothing don’t worry about it.” Kyungsoo shook his head and then focused all his attention on his cat.

Kai slowly put his knife away, now further curious at what this creature was doing and wanting to pet it as Kyungsoo was. Kai walked over slowly, and quietly as to not disturb the two. He knelt once he was close enough, like Kyungsoo had been.

“Stick your hand out. Let her sniff you first.” Kyungsoo said softly.

Kai had sat on the ground like Kyungsoo and held his hand out. Kyungsoo watched closely as his cat turned away from him and to the being. She paused to let her nose sniff duly, her head jerking back slightly upon the initial contact. It made Kai jerk back as well. But once the initial shock was gone, the two of them let their connection happen. Heddy sniffed and found no qualm with the person in front of her. She nudged her head under his hand and begged for her ears to be rubbed. The feeling made Kai jump again, the soft warm feeling of her head was unusual.

“Gently.” Kyungsoo started with an even softer voice, he was very cautious of how he would act with his beloved cat. “Gently rub her head.”

Kai did as instructed, barely adding any pressure in the way he rubbed her head. Heddy seemed to love every bit of what was happening, she walked away to let his hand run down her back and pet her rear. A weird smile found its way on Kai’s face, nothing great and something barely noticeable, but Kyungsoo was watching closely. He watched as his lips twitched and found new ways to rub the cat.

“Heddy.” Kai let the name roll off his tongue. The cat let out a soft mew after her name was said. “I like this creature. She is docile.”

“Eh, she can be a bitch. And scratch up my walls. But, that’s in her nature,” Kyungsoo shrugged as he got up. When he turned away he smiled to himself, Kai seemed to be very gentle with his cat and he appreciated that. “Hey, you gonna sit and pet my cat all day or do you wanna eat something?”

Kyungsoo said as he began taking the food out of the bag. Kai seemed to take notice of this and followed quickly. They took their seats at the table, soon followed by Heddy who jumped onto the top. Kyungsoo had thrown two things at Kai across the table, one of hash brown and another of a plastic container of pancakes and bacon. Kyungsoo took no notice of what Kai did and began to eat his own egg, cheese and sausage on a biscuit. However, as soon as he took a bite, he looked up and saw as Kai brought the small package of hash brown to his mouth and bit into the paper.

“You don’t eat the paper.” Kyungsoo said much to his shock. He had leaned over and grabbed his own hash brown and bit into the golden part. “Like this.” He chewed and watched as Kai followed.

“That is a relief. This part was not very tasty.” He did exactly as instructed again and began to chew. “I like this taste. This is nice.”

“It doesn’t feel gritty?”

“No, why?”

“Because that is also potato.”

“Hm…” He looked at the hash brown. “Interesting.” He nodded and proceeded to eat the rest of it.

“Then you open this like this.” He demonstrated opening the white foam box. Kai easily complied and opened his.

The two ate and made small conversation about the food. How it tasted, and how it was prepared and not very good for you. He almost felt bad that he had to give Kai such horrible food, but it was the best he could manage.

After their breakfast/snack had been eaten, Kyungsoo looked even more defeated than usual. He just wanted to lie down on his bed and sleep for a while and hope that everything would just go away. Even so, they carried on and helped Kai into a shower. It was a bit humorous how Kai was afraid of everything, but also scary with not knowing if he would react okay to the soaps and conditioners. And as Kai showered with the door open (he was too afraid of being attacked without knowing) Kyungsoo had found himself sleeping on his couch.

But as half an hour passed by, Kai, not knowing how to put on his newly anointed clothes, began to walk around the house in full nude.

“Student.” Kai called out to the sleeping male. “Little Student.” He called louder from across the room.

Kyungsoo woke with a jolt, his heart racing, pounding against his chest as he had no clue of where he had been. As he looked up to see the figure standing in the hallway he stared for a significant amount of time. His eyes roaming on the body in front of him all the way to the southern part until his cheeks flared and he quickly looked away.

“Oh, oh wow. Okay, nice. It would be real nice if you could have put on some clothes. Wow, whatthefuck.”

“I was unsure of how to dress myself and needed your assistance.”

“Why didn’t you put a fucking towel on?!” Kyungsoo got up and scared his cat who he had not noticed was sleeping on his side.

“Does my natural state make you uncomfortable?”

“Like, kinda? Like I don’t care, we’re both dudes, apparently. But like, you’re huge man. You could poke someone’s eye out.”

“Are you referencing my atenman?” He looked down to his groin.

“No! Well, that too, you’re well strung. I meant your—no wait! Fuck this conversation, just, let’s put clothes on you!” Kyungsoo got up and waved his hands to dismiss everything that was happening and proceeded to show him how to put on the clothes.

Of course, the clothes were a tad snug on Kai, but they would suffice. Kyungsoo could not help but notice as he helped dressed the man how he smelled. The way the shampoo and body wash melded with his natural clean scent seemed so insatiably good. It was a smell he could not describe, something he had most definitely never smelled before.

The next step after dressing the male was to get his clothes into the wash and to make sure nothing would harm the clothes or to that he was allergic to anything. So, he set them for a quick and light wash in the machine and made quick work of removing any stains. The step after that was to go back to bed. Kyungsoo was so tired that as he returned from the laundromat across the street he crashed on his couch and laid there face down. Kai had been seated in front of the television, watching the channels diligently. He had been scrolling through each channel with the remote, never staying long on one and switching right back to the last to make sure he did not miss anything. Everything seemed quite amazing.

But as Kyungsoo drifted into sleep he could not help but notice how cute Kai seemed as he sat crisscross on his living room floor, reacting to all the different things he was watching. Slowly, but surely, Kyungsoo fell asleep.

֍ ҉ ֎

Almost six hours later did Kyungsoo wake up with groggy eyes. He was comfortable and felt a warm buzz all over. The sleep had been nicely received on his end finally. His cat had situated herself back on him as he slept and all seemed right. The television was playing on low volume, the cooking channel to be exact. His phone had been on the floor beside his hanging hand, just where he thought he might have left it. Everything seemed normal, like he had accidentally fallen asleep on the couch with the TV going. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary with that.

But as he sat up, he noticed the distinctive sound of his toilet flushing. He wondered just who it could have been.

Who came out was definitely not who he had been expecting, he half expected a tall man with dark skin and white hair to appear. But what he got was his best friend Amy. She had long dark brunette hair, her features plain and nose pointed. She wore a blue cardigan over a black shirt and light blue shorts, something he recognized in her style easily.

“Amy..” He said with a grumble to his voice.

“Hey, you’re up.”

“Yeah, what’s up? What time is it?”

“It’s almost twelve.”

“Really?” He rubbed his eyes, wondering how he might have gotten back to his apartment. He could have sworn he was supposed to spend another couple days in the woods.

“Yeah, Kai said you had been sleeping for at least three hours.”

“Kai?” Kyungsoo froze and looked up, his face red from where he had been rubbing.

“Yeah, that cosplay fellow. Why didn’t you tell me you’d be back so early? I would have left the apartment to you.” Amy winked as she sat on the couch next to him.

“I’m sorry, what were you just implying.”

“I’m implying that I knew you’d fall to the dark side soon enough.”

Kyungsoo grimaced at that, he was sure that there had been a fine declaration that he was not so into guys. He just had an appreciation for the finer things in life.

“So it wasn’t a dream…” Kyungsoo stood up.

“What—”

“Where is he?”

“He was tired, so I made him sleep on your bed. You were sleeping on the couch, so I put him there.”

Kyungsoo had walked over to his bedroom, the door had been left open. There he had found Kai laid on his full-sized bed, covered in his sheets and faced away. His white hair sprawled out mostly on the pillows.

Kyungsoo bore an expression even he could not figure out.

“What happened?”

Kyungsoo tore himself away from the sight in his room and looked at Amy.

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you back, where’d he come from? What the fuck happened? And what the fuck is on his arm? It looks like a bomb.” Heddy had found herself on Amy’s lap, her purrs were soft and gentle as she settled in her lap.

Kyungsoo looked at the floor, thinking for a moment before going over to her and talking.

“You’re not going to believe me if I tell you..” Kyungsoo whispered.

“Just tell me.” Amy insisted.

Kyungsoo sighed, “I don’t… I don’t even know what happened to be honest. It just like… Ugh..” He plopped himself next to Amy and sighed into his hands.

“You can tell me, I know how you are and how.. Reserved you are, but it’s okay. You can really tell me. You know I’m the last person to judge you if you brought him home for the night.”

“No! Oh my god, no it’s not like that at all. It’s so far from that.”

“Then what is it?”

Kyungsoo looked up at Amy, his eyes searching for the right things to say _. If_ he should say them at all. If maybe he was really crazy and he imagined it all.

“He’s an alien.”

For a split second, Amy’s face was nearly about to burst into a laugh, but then something in Kyungsoo’s voice shook her down as she thought about it. She knew Kyungsoo fairly well, and he was not a bullshit kind of guy. She knew that he would not so easily lie, or joke for that matter, about something like that.

“No, you’re joking.” She said just to make sure.

Kyungsoo stared her down, shaking his head slowly. No lie left his dark eyes.

“What the fuck do you mean? How do you know for sure?”

“Because I watched him appear in front of me like it was nothing. He attacked me and spoke a language I’ve never heard before and casually started speaking English as if he had been speaking it his whole life. He literally had no idea of what he was doing here, he said his device broke and brought him to earth by accident because we’re not a part of this galactic protocol thing that controls like half the universe and like I don’t even know… He appeared and disappeared in front of me twice, literally twice Amy. In the click of a button, he was gone in a cloud of white smoke and then he just fucking appeared.”

“What do you mean disappeared and appeared?”

“I don’t fucking know Amy, he just does it.” Kyungsoo slumped over and let his face fall into his hands.

“When did this all happen?

“Last night. Then I think we were being chased by the FBI or something, so we ran from the forest and made a run for home.” His voice got lower. “Honestly, I don’t think I can be here for long. If someone was actually after us, who knows how long it will be before they trail us here.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, calm down. Who said that it would be a bad thing if they found you?”

“I don’t know! You don’t ever hear anything about the government getting in contact with extraterrestrials. That’s because they want to keep it as quiet as possible. That means I’ll probably have to start my life all over again since I’m involved with him now. And you, you could be in danger too. Who knows what could happen.”

“Soo, nothing’s going to happen—”

“I shouldn’t have run away last night. I should have stayed, let the government question him, me and take my things—”

“Kyungsoo—”

“I’m fucked, I’m royally fucked. There’s no getting out of this alive.”

“Kyungsoo!” Amy raised her voice and placed her hands on the male’s shoulders. “For goodness sake, just calm down! You’re worse than Raj on her period. Cheese and crackers.” Her face had gone red with the frustration she ensued while trying to calm the human next to her.

But as she relaxed Kyungsoo and herself, she noticed a being appear in the hallway.

“K-Kai!” Amy said nervously. Kyungsoo quickly whipped his head around to meet him.

“It seemed as if there were distressed voices. I came to allay them. I seem to be the base of the conversation.” Kai bore no expression, he was deadpan again, serious.

“No no, it’s fine.” Amy waved her hand. “Did you sleep well?”

“As well as I can expect.” Kai nodded.

“Mm.” Amy nodded back with a slight smile, it was not until later did she realize that his words may have been twisted with an underlying meaning.

“How long did you sleep for?” Kyungsoo asked in a soft voice, the whole situation still seemed surreal.

“Not long I imagine. My body is not accustomed to your concept of time just yet.”

“Well how much sleep do you need?”

“As much as possible. Our bodies when traveling rely heavily on rest and nutrition.” He stared the male down as he spoke.

“Why don’t you go back to sleep? We’ll be quiet—”

“Wait one fuckin minute,” Amy snapped. “Prove to me right now that you’re an alien.”

Kyungsoo smacked her arm. “You can’t just say that!” He whisper-yelled.

“Fuck off, I wanna know that you’re not actually crazy. Do something. Do something humans don’t do.”

“I must apologize, but there are a number of things that I do not know about the human race. But I do know this.” Kai had sat down in the middle of the floor and closed his eyes. Within a second, Heddy had raced from Amy’s lap and jumped onto his back.

Both Kyungsoo and Amy looked at one another.

“Okay, the cat jumped on your back. Big deal.” Amy said as a matter of fact.

“You misunderstand. I have made a connection with Hedwig and called upon her.”

“You mean like telepathy?” Kyungsoo said with a slight glimmer in his eyes.

“If that is what you wish to call it.” He nodded as he let his hand run down the cat’s body as she crawled on him.

“No, no, no, no, that doesn’t prove jack shit. Do something else.”

Kai nodded and stood up, “Forgive me, my body is not accustomed to this world and therefore cannot manipulate the elements as easily here.”

“Figures.” Amy rolled her eyes.

Kai then stood up and placed a hand over the lamp in the corner of the room. He stood there, his eyebrows twitching as he seemed to try and persuade his body to do something. The lightbulb flickered, it had been on, and looked like it had surged slightly. Once the bulb had done that, Kai released himself and breathed out heavily. “I again apologize. My body cannot work as usual.”

“So what? You have magical powers that can manipulate elements?”

“In terms of magic, no. My people’s body have evolved to be able to release an excessive amount of energy and create friction. Thus, causing light, fire or explosions. There is an art completely dedicated to it on my world. It is very beautiful when done correctly. As for the magic you seek, that comes in another form.”

Amy shut her mouth, she seemed like she had a smug remark to say but quickly threw it away.

“What magic do you mean?” Kyungsoo asked as he watched Kai, his hair looked smooth and fluffy, all the beads and chains in his ears had been removed.

“Elethal, kim onhana lemana pal heq il.” Kai began repeating such beautiful words like smooth clear water. But as he said them he raised his hand and a bright light began to form there, once the mass was formed he threw it up and watched as it exploded into a thousand little flutters.

“You’re a fuckin’ alien.” Amy said breathlessly. Kyungsoo’s eyes seemed to glow.

“How did you do that? What is it made of?” Kyungsoo sat up and let his hands reach out to the small flecks. As they kissed his skin he felt the warmth that radiated, it was mirth, a good comforting warmth.

As the two humans admired the dissipating light, Kai walked over to Kyungsoo and knelt in front of him. Amy retracted into the couch, like she was afraid.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Amy said in a panic.

Kai did not respond and kept his gaze strong on Kyungsoo.

“May I touch you?” Kai asked in a soft tone.

Kyungsoo found no malice in his eyes and nodded in response.

Kai then raised a little, his face gathering closer and closer to Kyungsoo’s. The human wanted to hide his racing heart as the gorgeous man neared him. He leaned back, trying to avoid whatever contact was about to happen. It sure seemed like a kiss was about to ensue. Kyungsoo’s cheeks were red and so were Amy’s. In fact, she was so surprised about what was going to happen that she gasped as Kai raised his hands and stopped Kyungsoo from moving away from him. He held Kyungsoo’s head gently and closed the space. But what shocked everyone was how Kai, instead, tilted Kyungsoo’s head up and nearly pressed his lips. He whispered something warm there, something in his natural tongue and it tickled all kinds of fuzzy warmth on him. Then he placed a hand on Kyungsoo’s neck and rubbed a thumb over the cut he had left. Kai pulled away and stood to his feet. Kyungsoo quickly felt his neck, to see what had happened. When he noticed the cut had disappeared he looked up at Kai.

“How… How…?” Kyungsoo stuttered.

“These are gifts from our god. In the early days of my people, they lived in times of war, and turmoil. They sought the power of Gods to help them and thus granted simple abilities as such… Those sparkles are just a trick, charged particles of heat, transformed into light. The incantation calls upon the powers and allows us to use these abilities. It is our natural being to call upon this magic.”

“But that can’t be real. Is that a myth?” Amy asked, referencing the gods.

“It is more real than what your and my eyes can see.” Kai stared her down with piercing eyes.

“But how do you know? Faith? That can’t—” Kyungsoo hit Amy in the stomach. She was being rather rude about the subject. She would not dare do that to a human, so why should Kai be any different?

“Because I have met him.”

A silence grew over the two humans, a realization of something they were not sure they were prepared for.

“Met who?” Kyungsoo finally asked.

“Our one great lord. Xanin.” Kai said.

There had been another silence, this time Kyungsoo and Amy both looked at one another.

“So, like what? How did you meet him? In your dreams? In person? How is that possible?”

“I met him physically and both metaphysically.”

“What does that even mean?” Amy responded, she was feeling a little heated.

“I apologize, did I misuse the word metaphysically?”

“What? No, no. Just explain how you met him.”

“He called out to me, sending messages for me to meet him. So, I sought him out and met him.”

“What did he meet you for?” Kyungsoo asked this time

“That—”

Suddenly, a knock came from the front door. Everyone froze and looked at the door, waiting to see what would happen. Kai quickly looked at Kyungsoo, a slight panic to his usual stoic eyes. The knock came again when nothing happened.

“Amy! Open up, I wanna come in!” A woman’s voice suddenly yelled from the front door.

Everyone in the room seemed to let out a sigh of relief.

“It’s just Raj.” Amy said under her breath as Kyungsoo ran for the door.

Kyungsoo opened the door quickly, looking every which way to check if there had been anyone else but Raj.

“Soo!” Raj said excitedly, her big brown eyes lighting up in mirth. “What are you—”

“Come in,” he grabbed her hand quickly and yanked her into the apartment.

“What the—” Raj squeaked as her long dark brown locks swayed in the air. It seemed to be all anyone saw of her as she disappeared into the apartment.

“Kyungsoo what’s going on?” She had stopped Kyungsoo and held onto his forearms, she quickly turned on her alert mode and noticed his distress.

“Raj!” Amy suddenly yelled from the couch. It almost made her smile to see her girlfriend, but she quickly caught the sight of piercing white hair and dark skin sitting in front of the coffee table.

“Raj, uh.. Shit.” Kyungsoo tried to pull her over to his couch. “Sit down, and meet.. Mmnt-mm-Kai!” Kyungsoo seemed to have a difficult time figuring out what to call him.

“Hi… Kai..?” Raj looked up at Kyungsoo, then back to Amy.

“Hello.” Kai slightly bowed his head then waved his hand in a rather robotic fashion.

Raj smiled awkwardly at the white haired being. “Wh-Why are you back so soon Soo? I thought you’d been gone for at least a couple more days.”

“I was supposed to, but it was cut short.”

“Why? What happened?” She seemed concerned.

Kyungsoo then looked down at Kai, his face unwilling to go over it again.

Raj followed Kyungsoo’s eye line and met with the piercing golden eyes of the stranger.

“Alright, just… Hear me out.”

֍ ҉ ֎

Kai was supposed to be on his way sometime after the next time he woke up. But, as it turned out, his device had been more broken than anticipated. It was running low on energy and needed an immediate backup. But the capability of Earth having something in such high energy was low. Nothing would be able to fuel his wrist device, so he decided to wait out the rush of needing to move on. He had been going on week two with Kyungsoo, having gone shopping for his own clothes and living comfortably on the couch. Despite the growing time they spent together, he spent most it sleeping. Where Kyungsoo liked to get between six and eight hours of sleep, Kai needed ten to twelve hours. His people seemed to sleep for more extended periods of time.

Amy and Raj made daily visits. Raj, having screamed after watching a demonstration of magic from Kai seemed to have been immediately attached to him. Even as Kyungsoo was off to work at the local Tim Horton’s during the week and working as an assistant for the university in cleaning the testing supplies on the weekends, the two girls made frequent visits. On more than one occasion did Kyungsoo come home from late shifts to find them curled on the couch, watching a movie that Kai seemed enthralled with and his hair done in very pretty fashions. To which Kyungsoo wished he could have spent the day with them instead. Kai was an interesting being, he had a lot of stories of places far away and Kyungsoo wanted nothing more than to sit around and listen to them. He wanted to know what the universe was like, if it was possible to beat this monster that was apparently destroying everything. Earth seemed so small in comparison to everything else, especially whenever Kai would bring up this impending doom. Earth was oblivious, naive and a lost cause. They would perish within the years to come. Who knew how long that it would take for it to happen…   

As Kyungsoo walked into the front door of his apartment he found Amy and Raj huddled together under his fleece blanket and Kai sitting on the floor in front of them stroking Heddy gently. Kyungsoo thought to himself; how nice it would be to follow Kai. When he would get his device fixed and was going on the rest of his journey, it would be nice to join him.

Kai had noticed as Kyungsoo did not move from the doorway and simply stared as the three watched the movie—well, the two girls had been fast asleep in each other’s arms.

“Welcome home.” Kai perked his head, his face showing something of intrigue. He had been dressed in a large white t-shirt that had been tied at his waist and baggy red shorts.

“Hey.” Kyungsoo cleared his throat and put his keys on the dining table and slumped his bag in the chair. He walked over to sit beside Kai on the floor, wondering what they had been watching. “Grand Budapest Hotel.” Kyungsoo chuckled tiredly. “This is a good one.”

“It has humor to it that I do not understand. Amy and Raj were laughing often, I only laughed when the big man quieted the little man behind the door.”

Kyungsoo furrowed his brows as he thought about the scene, Kai was a bit morbid.

“Interesting.” Kyungsoo then settled fully against the couch, his elbow hitting Kai’s ever so gently as he let them sit on top of his knees. The room had been dark and lit only by the television, it seemed to make him sleepier than he actually was.

“Did you eat?” Kyungsoo asked in a soft voice as the movie had been in the last couple of scenes.

“I have not eaten. But I am not hungry. Please, don’t worry about me.” Kai had said lowly as well, a small smile on his lips seemed to show his sincerity.

“Hey, if you don’t like my cooking, it’s okay. Foreign food isn’t always the best ya know.” Kyungsoo chuckled. He could sense that Kai was just being polite.

“No, I didn’t mean it to come off… Hurtful. I apologize. I just am not hungry—”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m just messing with you.” Kyungsoo laughed. “Come on, you’ve been here for how long and you still haven’t lightened up? Sheesh, someone’s gotta take the stick out of your butt.”

Kai furrowed his brows, “There’s… No stick up my butt…”

“Figure of speech.” Kyungsoo bemoaned.

They sat there in silence again, watching the movie and shoulders touching slightly. Kai was usually cautious about his human contact, but as the days went on, he seemed to get more and more comfortable with his spatial awareness to Kyungsoo.

As the movie turned into rolling credits Kyungsoo had slipped off into his dreams. His head had been lulled over to the side and his body seemed to lean heavy on Kai’s. It made the elf uncomfortable for just a moment, but he quickly relaxed when he noticed that Kyungsoo was fast asleep. He stayed there for a moment, staring at the small and pale human and his mind raced. His thoughts were full of questions and wonders; what would Kyungsoo’s life be like if he had not met him? What will happen when the universe perishes? Would his life have been made a bit easier if they had not met? The conversation he had earlier in the day with Amy and Raj seemed to resonate within him. They had brought up the fact that Kyungsoo was little more on the edge lately, working late shifts did not help but he was quick to his snarky and bratty self. The girls were genuinely worried for him and wondered if there had been something on his mind. Of course, the two girls had no knowledge that the universe was about to end, so maybe they had less reason to be so uptight.

_It would be nice, if you could live happily._ Had been the simple thoughts that Kai had concluded. To that he stood and leaned over Kyungsoo to pick him up with ease. With just the help of a little magic he was able to keep the human fast asleep as he carried him off to his bed and tucked him in.

“You are kind, Kyungsoo.” He said so softly. _I wish I could thank you properly._

“Are you leaving?” Amy suddenly asked in a hoarse voice.

Kai had turned his head as he released his hand from Kyungsoo’s forehead.

“You are awake.”

“Yeah, your ruffling with him woke me. I need to get going, I have work in the morning.” She yawned and curled the fleece blanket closer to herself. She spoke after a while of watching Kai as he stood over Kyungsoo. “So, are you leaving?”

“Not yet. Soon. I must keep traveling.”

“Where will you go?”

“The next spot in my journey.” Kai walked away from Kyungsoo, ready to leave the sleeping human.

“You know, there are a lot of secrets about you.”

Kai looked down at the small, pale, female human, his face bore an expression sort of similar to the human emotion of hopelessness. It twisted the cogs in Amy’s heart, something was not entirely right there.

“I know.” He whispered as he shut the door.

As the next morning rolled around, Kyungsoo stirred in his puffy blue sheets and smiled with how wonderful he felt. His body buzzed with a comforting warmth all over, nothing hurt, not even his lower back which usually felt tense in the morning. The sun had peaked slightly through the shades, bringing in another level of comfort that seemed too good to be true. Kyungsoo sat up slowly, his hair a wry and face swollen with the descent of sleep. He most definitely did not remember getting himself in bed last night, in fact the last thing he remembered was watching the ending of _The Grand Budapest Hotel_ next to Kai.

Kyungsoo got up, wrapped in his comforter and walked out of his bedroom. The door was shut and it further confused him. As he walked into the living room he found Kai seated at the dining table eating a bowl of dry cereal. He looked pale, paler than usual. There were only a couple changes to Kai’s physical appearance after the first couple of days, slightly showing. But as days turned to weeks, the prominence to the physical attributes did not seem okay. He seemed sluggish and would sweat often. It was kind of unnerving.

“Good morning.” Kai had said in an easy voice.

“Morning…” Kyungsoo rubbed his eye, still trying to make sense of what was going on. “What time is it?”

“Ten forty.”

“Ugh, I wasted the whole morning.” Kyungsoo grumbled, but not really that upset.

“No you did not. You still have an hour and twenty minutes to go.” Kai said as a matter of fact.

“No, I mean there were things that I wanted to do today so I could have the afternoon off.” He waddled his way over to the kitchen table and plopped on a chair.

“Why? You could just do it later today.”

“Yeah, but I wanted to spend the rest of my afternoon with—” Kyungsoo caught his words before finishing.

Kai raised a brow.

Kyungsoo snickered, “You know for someone who didn’t grow up human, we strangely have a lot of similar body language.”

“It is probably due to the similarity in our makeup. Despite being from different worlds, we thrive in similar environments, there has to be a commonality somewhere.”

“Yeah, yeah, science and all the good crap.” Kyungsoo leaned back in the chair and let his body melt. “...I can’t remember the last time I slept like that.” He mumbled to himself.

Kai smiled to himself, so very faintly and so very quickly. He did not say a word of the answer and watched as Kyungsoo curled himself further into the comforter.

“Ughhh!” Kyungsoo moaned loudly. “I don’t want to do anything today!”

“Why don’t you?”

Kyungsoo paused for a moment. “You mean why don’t I not do anything today?”

“Yes, why not relax?”

“Well.. I have to go grocery shopping, pick up toilet paper and get my oil checked. And I won’t have any time for at least another week. Today’s my only day off.” Kyungsoo pouted.

“Theren alle’monech. Direja minath.”

“What’s that mean?”

“An idiom. Do what you do. Or don’t.. If I have translated properly.”

Kyungsoo snorted, “I’m sure you did.” He stood up and walked over to the window that overlooked the parking lot. The plastic white vertical blinds had been drawn so that the morning light could not seep in. “It’s a dumb idiom.” Kyungsoo said as he peaked out one of the blinds.

“Are you hungry? Shall I make you a bowl of milk and cereal?”

“Please?” Kyungsoo asked politely as Kai stood up and put his into the sink. “Also, why aren’t you sleeping? You usually don’t wake up for another couple of hours.”

“It was hard to sleep.” Kai said over the run of the faucet. The wall in between the kitchen and living room blocked his voice out.

But as Kyungsoo stared out the window, he noticed the odd placement of cars and people walking around. There was never a mailman until three in the afternoon, and he had never seen the man sitting in a trench coat reading a newspaper before. Not many people wondered into the apartment complex that did not live there. It was possible someone had just moved in, but Kyungsoo was sure none of the apartments were for sale. There were cars dispersed around the parking lot, more than usual on a Monday morning. Most people were gone, at work or on errands, there were just one too many cars. Something was off.

“Oh yeah? Was it the couch? I told you to do whatever you wanted to get comfortable. You’ve been here for a while now. I would hope you’d be comfortable enough to do what you had to.” He spoke normally as if nothing was wrong, trying not to alert his friend. But as he counted how many men were walking about, Kai had appeared behind him and grabbed his hand that held the shade open. He closed it quickly and pulled Kyungsoo away from the window, holding him flush against his chest.

“Stay away from there.”

“You saw them?”

“I heard.”

A level of panic began to rise in Kyungsoo’s heart. “What do they want?”

“They want me. They want to confront us, to take us away somewhere. I don’t understand where, but they’re ready to use force and weapons.”

Kyungsoo pulled away from Kai’s grasp and turned around. “How long have they been there for?”

“For the majority of the morning. I think they were waiting for a sign of movement. And now you’ve given them that.”

The realization made Kyungsoo’s heart sink.

“I need to call Amy. She can’t come over today.” Kyungsoo panicked and ripped himself from Kai completely, letting his comforter drop to the ground and race to the bedroom for his phone. He froze when he thought about the fact that his phone might be wired, or that they might be listening in on his conversation. “Shit… Shit shit shit shit shit..” Kyungsoo got up from the bedside and looked around.

“You have to remain calm, Kyungsoo.” Kai said earnestly as he followed the male into the room.

“I can’t call her. If they tap my phone, then they know where to go. I have to get to her first. Or Raj, or something. They can’t come over or they’re done for. Shit!” Kyungsoo nearly yelled.

“We can’t leave without being intercepted, though. The house is surrounded.” Kai inquired.

“Well no shit Sherlock!” Kyungsoo snapped. The look of hurt on Kai’s face was enough to make Kyungsoo regret his words. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t.. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s okay. You’re scared.”

“I’m not scared—” He snapped again but was cut off by a knock at the front door.

Kai stood up to listen out for who was there, Kyungsoo’s chest beat hard with the sound of his heart.

The knock came again.

“It’s them. They want to knock the door down if we do not answer soon.”

“Fuck!”

“Get your things, only the things you most absolutely cannot live without.” Kai had turned to the human and spoke with a fierce sternness.

“Wh-Wait, why?” Kai had left him in a hurry. Moving into the living room to make quick work of things.

“Just do it. Fill your backpack with the most essential items.” Kai raised his voice to him.

Kyungsoo thought nothing more of it and got down to work. He changed into jeans and a clean shirt, shoving a few pairs of underwear into his bag. He grabbed his deodorant, laptop, phone and laptop charger, socks, and all the snacks and water he could fit. In the moment, he thought nothing more of it to grab what he thought was only essential. But later he would regret leaving so much behind. He shoved Heddy’s cat food and a few toys in his bag, all while calling out to her.

“Kai.” Kyungsoo said breathlessly as he ran into the living room.

What felt like mere seconds turned into minutes and the men were now banging hard on the door.

Kai had rushed to Kyungsoo’s side, dressed in his outfit from the very first night they met. His hair messily tied back in a pony tail and face firm with distress. He seemed to mull over something quickly, his eyes searching all over Kyungsoo’s body for a hot moment before looking up.

“What are you doing?” Kyungsoo asked as Kai turned away and stared off at the bedroom door. Suddenly, Heddy had come running into the living room and jumped in his arms. “There you are!”

“Think of Amy’s home.” Kai rushed. The door was slowly breaking, pieces of metal and plastic had been chopped away at.

“What?!”

“Think of it!”

Kyungsoo shut his eyes tight, thinking of the apartment his two best friends had shared since he had first lived in Canada.

The door slammed open on them, people in black masks had thick ski like goggles surrounding held at the door, waiting for a “clear” before proceeding. But before the men could engage with them, Kai and Kyungsoo had vanished in a plume of white, luminescent smoke.

֍ ҉ ֎

Kyungsoo had desperately clung to Kai for life, even as they had hit solid ground and were in the presence of a dark and musty room. He had been pressed against Kai’s chest, arms secured around his shoulders and protectively holding them there. Kyungsoo was hyperventilating and holding just a bit too tightly onto his cat so the small thing wriggled its way to freedom. Kyungsoo gasped and tried to call out and break away from Kai, but the disorientation in his body and mind were too much. He wavered, still breathing heavy and trying to stabilize the way he felt. Not a moment later did Kai remove a hand and place it on top of Kyungsoo’s head. The other hand on his forehead, brushing back hairs and sliding down to his cheek.

“Wh-What?” Kyungsoo’s face turned red. “What are you doing?”

Kai did not respond and simply gave an intimate inspection at the human's face.

“Wh-What—” He tried to pull away, but Kai was firm.

“I am checking for hemorrhages or any other abnormalities.”

Kyungsoo calmed down and let the elf do his thing. When he finished, Kyungsoo had grabbed his arms and held on instinctively, his balance was still out of it.

“Oh, I think I’m gonna be sick.” Kyungsoo bemoaned, his face ran pale and saliva began to form in his mouth. The small human fell from the white-haired man and down to all fours, dry heaving until bile had been spewing from his mouth. Kai had knelt beside him and rubbed a comforting hand on his back.

“Better?” Kai asked as Kyungsoo had finished heaving and sat on his heels.

He did not respond right away, letting his body relax for a moment and breathing heavily. “Yeah, better.” He breathed out. He looked around the house, noticing that it was not Amy’s apartment. “This is Amy’s summer home… We spent all last summer here… How did..?”

“My device was connected to you subconsciously for a short time. Did you think of this place by accident?”

“I… I might have… When they were breaking the door down it reminded me of how scared I was then. A bear was on the front porch trying to get in, but we all thought it was a serial killer… It must have been a sense memory thing.. Your device is sensitive.”

Kai nodded.

“I thought it was broken.” He motioned to Kai’s wrist.

“It is.”

“Then how did it get us here?”

“It does not have the capability to travel between worlds. I do not possess the energy source for that anymore.”

“That’s it?”

Kai nodded in response. Kyungsoo snickered and tried to stand to his feet. He wobbled and nearly fell over but Kai had caught him in his arms, Kyungsoo again holding onto him for dear life.

“How long am I going to be like this for?” He groaned as he looked the alien straight in the eye.

“For a little while. Your body just displaced itself and you’re weak, I don’t imagine a human’s body will recover like Allve.”

“Great…” Kyungsoo breathed out and tried his best to stand up straight. “I hope you don’t plan on staying with me like this until I can stand on my own.”

“I’ll stay for however long you need me.”

It was a simple statement, but most definitely one that Kyungsoo had not been expecting. It made his heart swell in a funny fashion. So he snickered. “Just put me in a chair.”

Kai did as instructed and helped him over to the musty couch, settling him down and helping him get comfortable.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll clean it when I’m better.”

Kai had been searching for something, Kyungsoo could tell and caught him before he could clean the bile. Kai stopped and retracted into himself, as if he did not know what to do. It was kind of cute, a tall, well-structured man in a ridiculous outfit. He then moved on, going for a lamp to turn it on. When he kept turning the switch, Kyungsoo chuckled.

“The electricity is off.”

Kai stopped and retracted again, he nodded in response.

Kyungsoo could not help but chuckle at this. “As soon as I feel better, we’ll get this place running, okay?”

Kai nodded again.

“What you can do is open the shades and curtains, get some light in here. And can you make sure Heddy didn’t get out. She’s always wanted to be an outside cat.”

Kai nodded again, but this time with much more enthusiasm. He did as he was told and began letting light into the house. The outside world was green, trees upon trees just beyond the driveway.

“It’s a thirty minute drive to the beach from here. It was a good summer for the beach last year… I wonder why we didn’t do it again this year..” Kyungsoo mumbled to himself as he tried to look outside. The bright light was just a bit too much on his retina’s.

“Beach.. I searched this once on your laptop. They reminded me of my home.”

“Do you have a lot of beaches there?” Kyungsoo asked with an inflection of intrigue.

“Yes, many. My ancient people were seafaring. Forest and beach. These are the terms..” Kai had stared out the window for a while, his back completely to Kyungsoo.

“...Do you miss your home?” He asked in a quiet voice, tender and kind.

“..Yes.” Kai responded just as softly and just as vulnerable. It pulled at something in Kyungsoo’s heart, it made him feel sad. Especially when a hoarse cough would emit from the elf’s mouth every so often.

But not an hour later and Kyungsoo was back to normal. He had got up and took Kai around the house and turned the electricity on in the kitchen and living room. They decided they would sleep there only, not wanting to create a long bill for the owners. The wifi was up and running by the time they had settled and were snacking on marshmallows. It was a year old, unopened package and for some reason they were still good. Kai quite enjoyed the taste of them. But as they snacked away, Kyungsoo took to his laptop and called Amy on facetime. He hoped he could keep it short because who knew if the men after them were tracing his laptop or phone.

“Amy!”

“Hey, I just went on break, what’s up? And why’s it so dark?” She moved the camera to her face, you could tell she was using her phone.

“I don’t have a lot of time. So, really quickly, people just broke into my house. I don’t know who they are or if they’re government related but they broke the door down and Kai and I teleported out. They didn’t seem nice. Don’t go to my apartment today. I don’t know how long but I know they know you know something. So just lie low with Raj for a while.”

Amy was silent, she had stopped walking and stared at the phone.

“What the fuck… I literally left your house at one in the morning. How can so much happen in such a small amount of time.”

“You’re telling me. Alright, I just wanted to let you know. They’re probably listening to the conversation right now so I’m gonna hang up.”

“Wait, where are you? Where’s Kai?”

Kyungsoo shifted and Kai had leaned over to reveal his head of white hair. He stood behind the couch. “I don’t want to say it out loud, but it’s this place.” He took the laptop and spun it around, only the little bit of light coming from the living room window had shown.

“‘Kay, I’ll see you tonight.”

“Wait, what! No—” Before Kyungsoo could finish the call had been disconnected. “Mother fucker.” He sighed out.

“You don’t want her?”

“I don’t think it’s safe. She could be followed, intercepted, I dunno. Just.. Ugh. Fine. If we get caught, we get caught.” He slammed his laptop closed and slumped into the couch.

“Call her again.”

“No, I don’t want to risk them tracking us through the signal.” He grumbled, then opened his laptop up and held the off button until it was completely shut down.

Kai smiled at the cute reaction, “Then, what do we do?”

“Well.. We wait. And hope she brings real food instead of Saltines and Maple Leaves.”

“I can eat Maple Leaves all day.” Kai had walked around and took his seat next to Kyungsoo on the couch. The statement made Kyungsoo chuckle.

They stayed there for a moment, silent and thinking about what was next to do. Kyungsoo eventually broke the silence after staring at Kai’s profile. He seemed worse now, the dark circles under his eyes were prominent and a thin layer of sweat coated his cheeks. Kai virtually almost never made any noise, but he could hear the soft tuffs of air leave his nostril now.

“What are you gonna do?”

“What do you mean?” Kai tilted his head.

“I mean, like what if you get caught? What if I can’t keep them from you?”

“I don’t know… I can transport as far as this can take me. Until it runs out.”

“You never found a source of energy, did you?”

“Your world doesn’t produce such energy. I have made my peace with the fact that I will perish with this world…”

“Oh.. No, Kai you can’t say that—”

“Please, don’t worry about consoling me. It is the truth. If I am beside you, I do not mind perishing with this world.”

Kyungsoo’s cheeks had flared immediately. It was quite the confession to his ears and he was so unbelievably conscious of the being beside him. To distract himself from the said male beside him the two rationed out their food and made sleeping arrangements on the couches. They would sleep in the same area just in case someone tried to break in again. But as the evening rolled on by and the two had somehow finally discussed the gender of said alien (which they had finalized as male to earth/human standards), a car had pulled in and lit up the living room walls. The sun was just setting as the owner of the car walked out and pulled out a pizza from the back seat.

Kai had opened the front door to greet the person, Kyungsoo had ran behind Kai and spoke quickly, “Were you followed?” He reached a hand out past Kai and pulled his best friend in.

“Surprisingly, no. At least not that I noticed.” Amy seemed a little ditzy about the severity of the situation as she maneuvered the pizza to the coffee table, it kind of left a taste of irritation on his lips.

“Are you absolutely sure?” Kyungsoo pressed, he wished she took this just a bit more seriously.

“Yes, yes.” She waved him off and maneuvered her way around to place the boxes of pizza on the table.

“You shouldn’t have come… But thank you.”

Amy smiled in response, “You know I’ll do anything for you. Raj is on her way, she wants to see you, too. Just in case it’s the last time we see you.”

Kyungsoo’s face ran pale, oh the troubles he had gotten himself in.

“No. I will not allow that.” Kai said firmly, his face hard.

“Whether you allow it or not is not up to you.” Kyungsoo let out absent mindedly. “You can’t get off this world and I can’t just ask Amy or Raj to take care of you. You’re my responsibility. And maybe I’m overreacting but I feel like we’ve grown closer in the last few weeks. I do like you, you’re cool. So, I will help you for as long as I can.”

The room was silent, but Kai’s face was slowly melting from its harshness. Maybe it had something to do with his deteriorating health, but for some reason the words childlike popped into his head when he looked at the elf.

“Your resilience never ceases to amaze me.” Kai knelt to one knee and bowed his head. “Please. Help me, until you physically and mentally can no longer.” He cleared his throat, it seemed like he was suppressing a cough.

Amy gasped in delight and Kyungsoo stuttered, “Oh! U-Uh! Um, no no! It’s not that polite!” He stumbled over and helped the elf rise. As they did so Amy laughed and started serving the pizza. They ate in the living room, huddled around the couch and conversing quietly. Amy had brought extra clothes from the retail store she worked at and all the money she could spare for them. As they talked more, the situation seemed to get more real, Kyungsoo’s heart pounded against his chest with nerves. It was possible he was about to become a government fugitive. But what did that matter if the universe was ending? There had been so much going on that he distanced himself to the back porch to be quiet by himself. The lightning bugs were dying, their numbers few in the forest now. Heddy was relaxing in a soft purr on his lap as they sat there, his legs swinging through the bars of the porch. He sighed out heavily and looked to the sky. The opening of trees around the house was enough to show the intricate display of stars above—the light pollution was little, so they twinkled with glee.

There was spot in the sky, however, he noticed that was quite dull. Like a whole section of stars was missing. It made him tilt his head and then rub his eyes, thinking maybe there was something wrong with him. But as he looked back up the black spot was still there, and he wondered if maybe there was a cloud in the way that he could barely see. He sighed, anyways, and shrugged.

“...We’re all fucked.” He mumbled breathlessly. It was inevitable that the end was near. But at least the forest looked lit up like the twinkling stars, there was at least _that_ one good thing. But as Kyungsoo was just starting to feel the full effect of relaxation, someone had gone running through the house and slammed the porch screen door open. In his hands had had been Kyungsoo’s laptop and Amy not far behind.

“What’s the matter—”

“Where is this sight?” Kai asked rushed as he sat next to Kyungsoo. Heddy jumped and nearly ran away.

Kyungsoo leaned over to look at the screen, there had been a picture of Raj, Amy and Kyungsoo all huddle in a selfie in beach gear. It was sunny out and none of them had ever looked so happy.

“We took this last summer… This is from our vacation here last year.” Kyungsoo looked up at the two people.

“Where is this necklace?” Kai pointed to the green stone on Amy’s chest.

“That was my grandma's. It’s a family heirloom. Why?”

“Because I need it to fix my device.”

“What?!” Amy snapped. “First of all, why? And second of all, no! My grandmother passed that down to me on her deathbed. It’s my duty to watch over it now.” Amy was quickly getting upset.

“Wait Amy, just hear him out.” Kyungsoo tried to mediate.

Amy crossed her arms defensively.

“This is a taurn. It produces an energy so powerful it could fuel my device for the rest of my life. If I get out of here, you guys might be able to go free.”

“How the hell do you know it’s a taurn or whatever.”

“Because there is only one kind of stone that glows like that. And only eight of them were ever made.”

Both Kyungsoo and Amy furrowed their brows.

“What glow?” Kyungsoo asked as he looked at the pic again.

“Do you not see it?”

Amy walked behind them to look at the photo.

“No, I don’t see anything.” Kyungsoo responded. Amy shook her head as well.

“Your eyes must not produce the ability to see it.”

Amy gasped suddenly, “Is that why the necklace was passed down?”

“What?” Kyungsoo asked.

“It was a lucky charm, remember? My grandmother told me it will bring me all the luck in the world if I wear it. But she said to not wear it too much. It wouldn’t be fair if all good things only good things happened to me.”

“I do remember that. You would wear it all the time.”

“Yeah, I thought it was just a dumb superstition. But a lot of good things did happen then. I was really happy…”

“Each taurn is different. This one seems to invoke positivity.” Kai inquired.

“So…” Amy’s voice was a bit melancholic. “It’s basically an alien artifact then?”

“That is the best theory. I don’t believe Earth can produce such natural materials. These stones were created by ancient gods. When the universe was just beginning. And few of them were ever made.”

“Then how did it get here? How has it survived so long?” Amy asked in an excited tone, she was anticipating all the answers to her problem.

“I don’t know how it got here. But these stones are indestructible. They cannot be destroyed. At least, there is no known method.”

Amy fell to her rear, it seemed as if her whole life had been a lie.

“My grandmother told me that it had been in the family for generations. That her great great great great grandfather had come across it in an old quarry in Russia… He had brought it home to sell for some food but as he chipped away at the rock over the course of a week, good things started to happen. So, the family took it as a good omen and he made it into a necklace for his wife. Since then, it’s been passed through the matriarch of the family.”

“Why didn’t it go to your mother?”

Amy shrugged, “My mom and grandma decided on her deathbed that I should take it.”

“Where is it now?” Kai interluded.

“I… I don’t know… I lost it that summer. It could be here, or I left it at the beach… Or at my mother’s, I really don’t know.”

Just as Kai was about to respond, a light from the front of the house had lit up the trees in the back. The three people froze and quickly scrambled once they heard a car door slam. Kyungsoo and Amy ran for the door, trying to see through the darkness who had been approaching the house. Kai turned the lamp off and held onto Heddy.

A knock wrapped at the door, Kyungsoo and Amy had been peeking through the glass of the door to see who it was.

“You can stop hiding, it’s just me.” Raj’s muffled voice came from behind the door. Amy lit up and immediately opened the door. The two embraced each other and laughed, Kai turned the lamp back on.

“You weren’t followed, were you?” Kyungsoo asked as the two embraced.

“No, not that I noticed.” Raj put down her tote and closed the door behind her. “I brought snack’s and the cat carrier. Just in case.”

Kyungsoo’s face ran pale.

“Soo…” Amy could tell he was upset. “It’s the worst-case scenario—”

“I know. Please, give her to your mother, I know she’ll take good care of her.”

“She will.” Amy sat Kyungsoo down and held a hand on his.

“Your apartment was infested with FBI. Or whatever they were, they were all in uniform, taking stuff in and out. It looked like a mess.”

“Great.” Kyungsoo slumped back. “Well, guess there’s no going back now. We have an important task right now anyways.”

“What?” Raj asked.

“We need to find Amy’s necklace from last year.” Kyungsoo said.

“If you’ll allow me to have it.” Kai looked to Amy with a polite demeanor.

Amy hesitated for a moment, she had been stuck in a pressured situation and really did not know the answer.

“Why?” Raj asked.

“Because it might be able to get Kai out of here.”

֍ ҉ ֎

 “Alright, I’ll check the apartment and when you’re done at your moms, meet me there.” Raj said to Amy just outside their cars.

“Okay, I’ll see you soon.” They embraced quickly and placed a longing kiss on each other’s lips. This physically repulsed Kai. Kyungsoo took notice of his reaction.

“If we don’t hear from you we’ll assume the worse. But either way we’ll come back for you if we find something.” Amy ran over to Kyungsoo and embraced him.

“I’m sorry you’re driving so much. Thank you.”

“Hey, this is most exciting shit in my life. Fuck money and my car.” She winked and ran off for her car. Both girls drove off, Heddy in Amy’s car and Kyungsoo’s heart heavy as it was left behind.

“Please stay safe guys.” He mumbled as he watched them go. He then turned to Kai with a stern face. “And you! What was that for?”

“What?”

“Your obvious face and sounds of disgust at them kissing!”

“I try to respect all different customs but that is just beyond repulsive to me.”

“Why? Because they’re the same gender?” Kyungsoo crossed his arms and grimaced.

“No, not at all. It is the act of their lips pressed together. The mouth is dirty. They just make one big mess.”

As the realization began to sink on Kyungsoo’s mind he lightened up. “So you’re a germaphobe.” He stated with a smirk.

“I don’t know what that means..” He pouted.

“Never mind. So then what do your people do to show they love each other?”

“It’s…” Kai became reserved. “It is hard to explain. But we transfer our emotions to the other. Usually when confessing, marrying or there is a particular romantic mood.”

“And how do you do that?” Kyungsoo’s arms dropped.

“...” He was silent for a moment. “Like this.” He lifted a hand and pressed it gently against Kyungsoo’s chest, right where his heart laid. Suddenly, Kyungsoo became overwhelmed with images and emotions. Sweet feelings of love and innocence, heartbreak and admiration. Before him was a girl, her skin dark and hair long, wavy and stark white like Kai’s. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. No one on earth dared compare. But as the images passed by he noticed he had been looking at her himself, like he was looking at her through Kai. There were moments of them alone, talking; moments where Kai would find her in a crowd of others. Moments of them laying down and Kai stroking her hair. Moments of her crying and comforting her. But as the last images rolled by there was nothing but anger on her face. She was yelling and vicious while Kyungsoo’s emotions were scared and of guilt, like he had done something horrible. But as those emotions had gone by, a calming relaxation shot through him. Suddenly, he saw himself, wrapped in his fleece blanket. He looked cozy and warm and Kyungsoo was just a bit confused. Then, it stopped. Everything was gone, images and emotions. He gathered himself for a moment and breathed so heavily he thought he’d pass out. Kai held his shoulders to hold him up right.

“Who was she?” He asked finally, wiping his eyes of a few stray tears from the overwhelming emotions.

“The love of my life…” Kyungsoo did not respond, he stood up straight and gathered himself, breathing hard through his nose.

“What happened to her?” Kyungsoo dared to ask.

“...She died.” Kai turned away, a shame baring greatly over him; a melancholy that Kyungsoo could not even begin to understand.

He chose not to push the subject any further and watched as Kai sauntered back to the summer home. He would keep the fact that he saw himself in Kai’s memories to himself. But soon followed with a smirk on his face, it would be easy to tease Kai with kisses now and that was a silly thought.

֍ ҉ ֎

 “Okay. So, let us start the search.” Kyungsoo said as he turned all the electricity on in the house.

Kai had been coughing just behind him, he looked terrible now, even worse than before.

“Hang in there Kai. We’re gonna find that crystal.” He mumbled.

Kai had stood up and the two went to work, opening drawers, cabinets, and up turning everything. Couches were a wry, the kitchen was a mess. Nothing was left alone. Kyungsoo had moved up stairs and began to search all the rooms. Kai had moved to Amy and Raj’s old room and began to search in the darkness. However, just as his eye was drawn to the underside of the bed did he hear voices from downstairs. They spoke in whispers outside and turned out to have been watching them since Amy arrived. Kai nearly panicked and quickly leaned down to look under the bed. There before him had been a golden green glow from under a pair of shorts. He snatched the crystal and ran for Kyungsoo.

“They’re here.” Kai skidded into the doorway.

“Who’s here?!” He whispered and froze.

Kai stared him down, not needing to answer for Kyungsoo to get it.

“Shit.” Kyungsoo threw the bag he was holding down and scrambled to his feet. “We need more time—”

Kai held up his hand, showing the rather large emerald ball.

“You found it!”

A crash had suddenly came from downstairs, the back door had been broken in to.

“Quick, down the hall!” Kyungsoo shoved the alien on and stopped in the middle of the hall, pulling on a string and opening a latch to a secret compartment. “Get in there and fix your thing, I’ll hold them off, okay?” Kai nodded and jumped easily into the small opening. “Catch!” He whispered as he threw the string back up. But as his arm flew up, Kai had reached down and pulled him up with little effort. But Kai was weak and could not be as graceful as usual. Kyungsoo had landed on top of him, their bodies completely mangled in one another. Kyungsoo tried to brush off the initial shock and quickly climbed off to close the door. He pulled the string in a panic, keeping an eye at the staircase at the other end of the hall.

He could only hope no one saw him as he closed the latch to the attic.

“What did you do that for?!” He whisper-yelled.

Kai stood up and grabbed Kyungsoo’s hand, pulling him quickly and quietly to a corner of the attic. Kai sat, hidden by a tall wooden closet and pulled Kyungsoo on top of him. Their legs had been completely entangled. Kyungsoo was nearly sitting in his lap as they faced one another. Kai quickly brought up his wrist, flipping switches and pressing buttons and removing a small white crystal. He held the first crystal out for Kyungsoo to take, he took it and inspected it slowly. Kai’s hands moved quickly, much too fast for him to process.

“Hey, why don’t I move?”

Kai simply yanked his arm down and kept Kyungsoo on top of his legs.

An explosion went off on the attic door, after the voiced men downstairs had searched all the rooms.

“Fuck!” Kyungsoo covered his ears and tried to shield Kai from the blast.

However, before any of the armed men could get their way up the stairless attic, Kai had slammed his wrist shut and shoved something into Kyungsoo’s mouth.

“What the fu—”

“Swallow.” Kai’s face was stern and rather scary. Kyungsoo complied easily after this.

Flashlights had been shining into the attic opening, scaring Kyungsoo that they were quickly running out of time.

“Just let me hold them off!”

“I’m not leaving you to them.” Kai had held firmly onto his arms.

“Wait! No!” Kyungsoo screamed as Kai embraced him and slammed on the device on his wrist. A great light encased them, nearly blinding Kyungsoo as he peeked through the opening of Kai’s arms. Electrical currents shot out, gusts of wind blew everything about. In seconds, they were gone.

֍ ҉ ֎

Everything was finally calm. There was no rush of vertigo and there was no disorientation. Kyungsoo could not even begin to describe what had just happened to him, there were no words in Korean or English or any Earth language that could describe what had just happened.

A heavy chest had been breathing against his head, soon, a fit of coughs began to shake it. Kyungsoo lifted his head after the initial dizziness had gone away. Kai’s face was nearly white, sweaty and hazy. He looked like death, more so than before.

“Kai.” Kyungsoo panicked as he sat up to hold his face in his hands. “Kai, what’s wrong? Come on talk to me.” He said as Kai’s body fell forward, putting all his heavy weight on Kyungsoo’s small body. “Kai! Kai, please stay with me!” He said rushed as he tried to make the position comfortable. But because there was an unconscious alien in his arms, he could hardly worry about the fact that it looked like he was floating in space. There was solid ground, but he could not see it. All he saw was an endless abyss of stars and universe; he was so confused. Eventually, Kyungsoo was able to lay Kai down so that his head was in his lap.

“Kai, please… Don’t die on me. I don’t know where we are.” Kyungsoo said lowly in a panicked voice as he hovered over the alien’s head, holding it up and stroking away the beads of sweat.

“He won’t die.” A voice sounded. It was grand—filling the whole space—yet soft as it echoed around the two of them. Kai’s hand had shot up and held loosely onto Kyungsoo’s hand. Kyungsoo looked down to see what was wrong but Kai’s eyes were closed.

“Leave him to me.” The voice came suddenly in front of him, Kyungsoo shot his head up and saw before him a tall man. He wore no shirt, but he did have a dark belt at his hips that connected a long flowing piece of cloth, it looked metallic in nature yet flowed like silk.

“Wh-Who… Who are you?” Kyungsoo defended, he held the elf in his lap away, trying to hide what he could.

But the stranger walked forward, a smile on his soft features. This scared Kyungsoo. “Please, stay back!” He raised his voice.

“There’s nothing to fear, Do Kyungsoo.”

The human froze in fear. How on earth did this guy know his name?

But as the stranger closed in, Kyungsoo could not help but notice how ridiculously tall he was. At least three feet taller than Kai. He knelt beside Kai’s body, looking over it. Kyungsoo could do nothing, he would be powerless against this being but as the man raised a hand and Kyungsoo wanted to shoo him away, Kai squeezed his hand. He was trying to tell him he would be okay.

But as the man hovered a hand up and down Kai’s body, Kyungsoo watched carefully. The man’s eyes twinkled with light, literally, his hair was fluffy brown and short, like his own. And his skin was beautifully bronze, like peanut butter to Kai’s caramel. His face was almost a bit babyish with his large cheeks, but the rest of his body was toned. Muscle leaking from every corner. Suddenly, the man’s large hand began to glow. He pressed it down on Kai’s bare stomach, making Kai gasp at the sudden pressure. Kyungsoo panicked almost wanting to smack the man’s hand away, but Kai’s grasp on him prevented him from doing so.

The stranger’s hand raised on Kai’s body, trailing up to his chest and resting on his heart. His hand lingered there, but the glow ran brighter. A moment later the hand traveled to his head and rested there, his palm completely covering the size of Kai’s head. When the glow faded, Kai’s eyes softened, his breathing became deep and his color started to come back. The man let his hand trail back down and closed Kai’s eyes on the way down to his stomach.

 “Kai!” The large stranger whispered loudly, giving the elf’s belly a quick shake. “Wake up, Kai!!” He used his single large hand to tickle the dark toned stomach. It was confusing to Kyungsoo.

Kai simply scrunched his nose and moaned, clearly not wanting to be disturbed.

“Tickle, tickle, tickle.” The man repeated as he ran two enormous hands on the alien. Kyungsoo was now very baffled.

The large human-like man stood up after giving a good hearty laugh. He walked away past Kyungsoo, ethereal in his whole essence.

“W-What?” Kyungsoo breathed out.

But as he questioned, Kai finally opened his eyes and started to move around.

“Soo..” He said as he locked eyes with the man before him. They stared each other down, Kyungsoo still so very confused.

“How… Are you?”

“Xanin..” He let out breathlessly. Then suddenly his body jerked, and he rolled over and bowed down. The tips of his fingers pointed down and his mouth touching the very edges of his nails. “My lord, forgive me, I have failed you and did not complete my task—”

“I see you’ve done well, Kai. Son of Melanilth’kun.” The man’s voice boomed, louder than any vibration and echoed greater than any hall could offer.

Kai froze, daring to peek up. “...But sir…”

Xanin stared the man down from where he sat, invisible in every sense. Why was this large human sitting comfortably, his voice echoing like thunder and body walking like he was floating? A knowing smile seemed to smirk on the man’s face.

“There is nothing to refute.” The man pressed.

Kai dared to raise his head more and see what the man looked like.

“My Lord…”

“You’ve done exceptionally well, Kai. I praise you.”

“My Lord?”

“I sent you off, looking for solutions to this impending problem. I told you, you would travel far and meet the one true being who would help you through this journey, did I not?”

“Y-You did but..” Kai stood up, looking back and forth between Kyungsoo and the person called Xanin. “...This was supposed to happen…” Kai breathed as he bore down on Kyungsoo.

“W-What?” Kyungsoo could feel his insides churning over and over, he was so unbelievably nervous, and he was getting fed up with repeating “what” over and over.

“Kyungsoo.” The man at the end of the hall called out. “Some thanks is also in need of recognition on your half. This task was not meant for one, not even two, really. But this is how it must be… This is the only way..” An air of melancholy washed over the man’s voice, his face turning somber and every bit of upset.

“No. I’m sorry, _what_?” Kyungsoo emphasized his ‘what’ a little harshly. “Who are you? Where the fuck am I? And what the _fuck_ are you talking about?!”

“Kyungsoo lower your voice…” Kai whispered as he held onto the human’s shoulder, his eyes pleading for him to cooperate. A pang of embarrassment washed over Kyungsoo once he saw Kai, maybe his outburst was a little too much.

But before he could say anything, Xanin spoke out.

“Yes, that is to be expected… To introduce myself and my existence is a cumbersome conversation and quite complex in itself. So, to put it as bluntly as possible, I am Xanin. The god in which Kai’s people worship. And to many others.”

Kyungsoo’s mouth fell open, his eyes gleaming at the large humanoid. “What do you mean—” he chuckled through his astonishment, “you’re the god of his people? How’s the possible? What are you? Like are you high and mighty? ...Prove it.”

A laugh echoed from Xanin down the hall. “I’ve met many a great deal of humans from Earth. All of which were willing to doubt my existence and question me. It is an excellent quality. Keeps your minds open. Although, I am aware that your race tends to also be… How shall I put it nicely… Ignorant.”

Kyungsoo was taken aback by the man’s words.

“Never mind.” He waved the human off. “If it is proof you want. Then proof you shall have.” With a simple raise of the man’s hand as his arm rested by his side, everything in the room flashed over.

One moment there were stars and an endless abyss of universe, the next, there was a luxurious hall filled with large braziers lit by massive blue fires. Columns beyond columns outlined the room, as if it were a great hall of a throne room. At one end stood five thrones, the one Xanin sat in looked like silver metal, similar to whatever he wore with a red cushion beneath him. It was simple, yet it bore a nature of importance. It sat furthest to the right from Kai and Kyungsoo’s perspective. Next to Xanin’s throne was one of golden rock, like moonstone. This one had a slight grander appearance to it than Xanin’s. In the middle was the largest and grandest of them all, it looked as if it were made of molten lava, rock that had cracks seeping of raging hot lava inside. It was breathtaking. To the left was a stool, carved out of whatever rock the floor had been made of. There was nothing else to it, a small square stool that rose but a couple feet from the ground, or was it taller than that? It was hard to tell, Kyungsoo’s depth perception was messed up due to the overbearingly large size of Xanin. To the left of that chair was the last one of them all. It looked like it might have been made of wood and small floral decorations with the way it interwove around itself, but it was hard to tell by the slight shine it possessed—like a polyurethane coat had covered it. It was like branches of leaves and flowers decorated it so. The ground was solid and cold, a marble like dark stone decorating the ground in the most ornamental way. Right below Kyungsoo and Kai had been an intricate design, like an insignia encased around a large circular symbol. Then on the outside of that circle were five smaller ones, linked and connected to the bigger one. It was beautiful. As Kyungsoo looked around he saw that the walls were not fully opaque, but transparent and showing the galaxies and stars just on the other side. It made his head hurt if he stared too long at the transparency.

“Okay… You got me.” Kyungsoo raised his hands and fell back to sit on his rear. Kai quickly caught the male in his arms and fell back as his cushion instead. It surprised Kyungsoo because he had not expected Kai to react so quickly.

“You are quick to accept this then.” Xanin chuckled.

“Yeah well, I’ve seen a lot of freaky shit lately so I’m sure no matter how much it surprises me, it probably won’t really surprise me.”

“Understandable.” Xanin nodded.

“What did you do? How is that working?” Kyungsoo asked as he sat in Kai’s lap, letting his body relax into Kai’s form. It was oddly comforting to be so warm against him.

“I have bestowed the gift of immortality.”

“What?!” Kyungsoo nearly shrieked.

“These halls were created by myself and my four other forebears. Mortals cannot view the halls we created, unless given permission by us. Which means, immortality must be gifted to you.”

“So, I can’t die?”

“Not from aging or sickness. But you can be killed. So don’t try anything.” He laughed. “I can also take your immortality away at any moment, so the moment you leave I will smite the gift from you.”

“O-Oh. Okay… Well… Thanks, I guess.”

“You are kindly welcome.”

“So… because I’m not fully immortal, is that why I can still see the universe around?”

“Precisely. You are a quick learner. Good. You’ll need it to survive.” Xanin stood up from his throne, his bare chest and muscular glory baring down on them.

“Wh-Why survive..?”

“Kyungsoo, I can see many things. I have seen many things. And will see many things. Interpret that as you will. But as I can naturally see, you will, naturally, follow Kai. And it can only be you.”

Kyungsoo furrowed his brows, “because, you’ve seen this?”

“Yes. And because…” Xanin descended from the stairs the thrones had been perched on. “This also tells me.” Within a moment his arm was raised, and blue light radiated from his hand. The ground beneath the two sitting males began to glow as well. “Now, what I am about to show you, no other living mortal or immortal being has seen this. Just myself and my four other cohorts.” The ground began to move, shaking as it grew brighter and brighter. The two shifted as the circle of the mosaic moved them, a near smooth ride as something rose from the bottom. Almost as if water had been placed underneath the mosaic did a well emerge. It was large and silver, matted down as if it were made of stone—Kyungsoo could not quite tell what it was made from in the first place. The two male’s stood to their feet as the contraption came to a halt, watching as Xanin moved his arm (now just a cloud of blue luminescent light that looked like the consistency of gel) to allow the well to appear. He stepped forward and what seemed like he would fall through water, only stepped on solid surface. “Take a look.” Xanin offered the two.

Kyungsoo looked to Kai to see if it would really be okay, Kai simply looked like he needed to get out of the room; panicked and nervous.

“Kai?” Kyungsoo reached a hand out to sooth the male.

“You may pray, Kai.” Xanin said suddenly to the panicked boy.

Kyungsoo watched as Kai knelt back to the floor and began to mutter words in another language. He then quickly looked back to Xanin.

“Should I…?”

“Only if you wish. But you do not need to. There are no regulations or rules. It’s just how he copes.”

“What do you mean? Cope..?” Kyungsoo raised a brow.

“My existence cannot be simplified for the likes of most life-forms. To base my existence, and many others like me, down to simplicity would be… Well, insulting.” Xanin took note of Kyungsoo’s expression. “What I mean is.. There is a small number of beings that can actually truly understand my existence. It may be because you were never meant to understand my presence, but that is simply how it is. And the way Kai’s people seem to cope with my entity is by deifying me… An older civilization on Earth would have deified me, but now, most organizations would find me to be a threat. And they have every right to! I’m probably one of the most powerful creatures to the known universe.”

“So… Okay. Why don’t you try explaining to me what you are? Maybe I’ll get it.”

“No, it won’t work like that I’m afraid. Your brain’s hold the capacity to puzzle things together. But because you were not made in a way to understand my nature, it would only frighten you or your head will explode.”

Kyungsoo laughed.

“Have I said something funny?” Xanin tilted his head.

“Explode? I’m sure we’ll manage, I mean humans are stupid but we’re not _that_ stupid.”

Xanin raised a brow this time, “Won’t your heads explode if you think too much? Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere?”

“What the fuck, no! Not literally!” Kyungsoo nearly scoffed.

“Oh.. That mustn’t be your people then. Sorry, all you water-base lifeforms meld into one at some point.” Xanin smiled a toothy apologetic smile.

“Aren’t we technically carbon base?”

“Hm? Oh well yes, but you consist of mostly water. If you were entirely carbon, then you’d be Aphrindite. Basically, they’re people made completely of diamond. You know, tetrahedra carbon shaped molecules and all that.”

“Ah.” Kyungsoo nodded, trying his best to seem as if he knew exactly what Xanin was talking about even though the idea of crystalline people made him want to cry. All he wanted to do at this point was sit in his living room and drink some tea. “So basically, you're saying, because the years of evolution didn’t prepare me for a moment like this, I won’t be able to understand it?”

“Essentially. That is why I take this form on many occasion. My colleagues and I often appear in forms that come comfortable to most. By taking our true forms may not even work _because_ of the very nature we exist. Your brains and eyes simply could not process what we are, we might even be invisible if we appear in front of you.”

“Well why don’t we try it?”

Xanin chuckled uncomfortably. “Let us not. The first and last time I did so, it killed the man from a brain hemorrhage.”

Kyungsoo’s face fell to a frown. “Oh. Yeah. Okay. Cool, let’s keep it like this.”

“Agreed.” Xanin nodded. “Now, take a look.” He motioned to the well that stood in front of him.

Kyungsoo said not another word, there were so many things he wanted to ask but the better of his consciousness told him not to say anything. Instead, he went on and let a foot step on what looked like water from the angle he stood. Looking at it from above showed that it was luminescent and green, specks of light and small strings of things were floating about all in the water that pressed solid against his foot. He quickly looked up from the floor and closed his eyes, it was so hard to not wonder what was going on. He then looked at the well before him and stood to the tips of his toes to get an even better look over the edge. There, another blue and never-ending light filled the well. Braid like strands of a lighter blue floated all about the well; coming from one end and to the other. It was like an abyss of crystal clear water, there was no end the further he stared into its depths. But something drew Kyungsoo near, something deep in his heart stirred with want and it called out to him, wanting him to sink right into the well and never let go. Kyungsoo held a hand to his chest, pushing himself back and stumbling as he did so. His lungs pulsed with heavy breaths, a sweat trickling from the side of his temple as he came to.

“Do you feel that?” Xanin asked in a low voice.

“Yeah.. What the hell was that?”

“Temptation.”

“For what? I don’t.. Understand?”

“In this well, lies your fate. Along with the fate of every other being in this universe, timeline and realm. This well possesses a power so great that it naturally tempts all who dare come near it. Your subconscious is attracted to the fact that its fate is before it. With the grasp of a hand it can mend itself and shape its own future… In a sense, it is the most dangerous thing in this entire universe. That is why it is kept hidden to all, only myself and my four other friends know of its location. There are plenty who know of its existence, in fact that is why I’m at war. But if it were to fall into the wrong hands, destruction could befall us all.”

Kyungsoo stared at the well from where he stood, not daring to look any more into it.

“Why show me then? Why us?” He finally asked.

“Mostly because I think you needed one more shred of proof, and to motivate you to continue with Kai on his journey.”

“What journey?”

“Well, to save the universe, really.” Xanin smiled wide, baring all his glory down on the human.

Kyungsoo could hardly take in all that his ears were hearing. He was not even sure he was hearing anything correctly. Maybe he died back at Amy’s summer home, maybe he died that night in the forest hunting for bugs. Who knew, but he did know that he was on the verge of a panic attack.

“Why me?”

Xanin shrugged and jutted out his bottom lip. “Don’t ask me. That’s what the most powerful being in the universe wants.”

“Who the hell is that?” Kyungsoo dared to question.

“Well.. Basically.. You’d call it fate.”

“Lemme guess, he’s a concept that’s too complicated for my human brain to grasp.”

“Now you’re getting it.” Xanin snapped his finger in amusement.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “So then what’s the point of fate being in a well if you're here?”

“Oh this? This isn’t fate. It acts like fate, most definitely. I created it. Well, with the help of Aeon. We created it. Now Koh, Makkūn, Agié, Aeon and myself are the guardians of this. We tend to the strings of fate of all those in this universe.”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but notice you said, “this universe”.”

“Yes! You heard correctly. This universe.”

“Well what the hell, are there multiple?”

“Infinite.”

Kyungsoo took a deep breath, Xanin could feel the tension rising in Kyungsoo.

“The universe is constantly growing and expanding, that also means there are infinite numbers of universes since it keeps growing. There are infinite numbers of timelines and infinite numbers of parallel universes. In a sense, the existence of Carn is good for the universe. Like the concept of Life and Death. There are beginnings in ends and ends in beginnings. However, as Carn has recently gotten out of hand, there won’t be a universe… This is where I need you Kyungsoo. I would do this myself, but I must focus my strength and power to protecting this realm. I have been at war for some time now by people who would seek to take control of the fates here. Even now the realm is under siege; I’m using my power to keep you from hearing the battles outside for your sake. People who wholly worship Carn would give him the fate to crumble the universe or people who would seek to stop him by using it. It is a lovely mixture.”

“Why don’t you?” Kyungsoo snuck his thought in despite the word vomit of questions that nearly wanted to pour out. His heart beat faster against his chest, his breathing eradicating.

“Because you can’t. Messing with the well is catastrophic. No matter how god like I seem, there are some things I just can’t do. The first time I tried to deliberately interfere with the fates, I created Carn. This is a story for another time. _Now_ , there can only be perfection. There is no room for concepts like human error. Perfection is and will always be achieved.” Suddenly Xanin raised his arms, Kyungsoo watched as they disappeared into clouds of blue light and dove into the well. He stepped forward and looked over the well to see what Xanin had been doing. Very carefully he could see the outline of a broken string being melded back together, very similarly the way a braid would be intertwined.

“But I thought you couldn’t interfere.”

“This, is not interfering. This is cleansing. Every once in a while.. Here, it’s like the strings get sick and need medicine to get better. This is all we can do to help. Otherwise, we can only protect its existence. We make sure nothing disrupts the natural flow of what the strings must be.. But as Carn moves on, the well breaks. The realm crumbles. If Carn destroys anymore of the universe, then it’s quite possible the well will not be able to hold itself anymore. It will run too weak to keep the basis of this realm flowing. By the time this runs too weak, it will essentially implode on itself and cause an even faster destruction of this universe. Once he has consumed it, he will move on until everything is gone. There will be no more infinite number of universes. He will get to a point where he can consume faster than the universe can produce.”

Kyungsoo was silent as he watched Xanin remove his hands, blue flames really, and transform them back into the human-like hands. “...So how.. Do you stop him..?”

“You don’t.” No air of mischief played on his voice or face. It frightened Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo’s face ran pale. He suddenly became conscious of the fact Kai had gone silent, who knew how long ago he had been like that.

“How the hell do you expect us to “save the universe” if there’s no way?!” Kyungsoo nearly blew a blood vessel.

“That’s where I come in.” A voice yelled from the opposite end of the thrones. A door had opened and closed all the same in the corner, revealing another chest barren figure.

“Ah! Dûrhig!”

“You know I hate that name.” The new face seemed to glare from across the room. He dragged something behind him as he wiped a cloth across his body.

Xanin scrunched his nose up teasingly. “Oh it suits you far better than—”

The new person cleared his throat threateningly. Xanin simply smiled in his smug ways.

It only took a few long strides before the golden being had found his way beside Kyungsoo. What looked like a cape being dragged behind him was, in fact, feathered wings. They were attached to his back and stark white when they were not covered in a dark goo like substance which had also covered much of his body. He wiped a chunk on his face and flung it to the ground.

“Ugh, not on the ground. We _just_ had it cleaned.” The ground sizzled and smoked, like the substance was burning through it.

As Kyungsoo watched the substance burn at the ground, Xanin looked at it and the substance blew up into flame. He then noticed that the well had completely disappeared, he didn’t even remember it sinking back into the ground. He looked around for moment, trying to tell if he was going crazy but then he looked at Xanin, the man seemed to show no sign of knowing anything.

Kyungsoo looked back at the winged human who stood taller than he and Kai but not nearly as tall as Xanin. He wore something golden on his chest that fit the width of his shoulders, his chest bare and sporting no signs of nipples. Torso sculpted into perfectly shaped muscles. His pants were white and balloon like (where they weren’t stained), held at his hips by golden clips and hemmed in red cloth against his skin. Large slits ran down his thighs where the clips buckled, exposing toned and golden thigh muscles. It was quite attractive and risqué to Kyungsoo’s eyes. His skin seemed to literally shimmer with gold, as if streams of gold for some reason swam through the underlayer of his skin. His eyes were golden, warm and inviting. Nothing short of approachable despite the snark in his tone towards Xanin. His hair curled loose and long over his eyes, messy, yet perfect in each curl as they trickled to his neck in a dark chocolate color. He was quite a stunning figure. Cheekbones sharp enough to strike through you and lips carved out of crystal hew. He seemed, in all sense of the phrase, “sculpted by gods.”

As Kyungsoo surveyed the new being their eyes locked. The man’s nose for some reason sniffed. He sniffed a second time, harder than the first. By the third sniff the realization hit him.

“You’re human! From Earth! Well I’ll be damned.” The man leaned back and placed his hands on his hips. “You wouldn’t happen to know Huang Zitao would you?!” He was all very excited, his smile almost overbearing to Kyungsoo.

“U-Uh… No.. Sorry I don’t..”

“Ah.. I should have guessed. You guys don’t nearly look similar. I’m Hrodûrim. Pleasure to meet you.” The being held out a hand wholeheartedly.

“Pleasure’s… All mine? I’m Kyungsoo.. Do Kyungsoo.” Kyungsoo reluctantly grabbed the man’s hand and shook it with less than half the effort the other was putting in.

“Kyungsoo.. Kyungsoo..! Must be a common name there. I have a friend… You wouldn’t happen to know—? No, he’s way before your time.” The being seemed to be never ending, it was thought after thought. He tilted his head as he started to thoroughly inspect the human. “Anyways, I have a friend—”

“Okay! That’s enough.” Xanin interjected as if a mother was trying to stop her child from listening to an ‘adult’ conversation. “Did you bring what I asked?”

“Yeah, yeah. Goodness, don’t get your knickers in a twist. You fucking twat. I got it right here.”

Kyungsoo’s mouth dropped at the sudden language when a knife went flying past both his and Hrodûrim’s nose. Everyone froze in the room, Kai somehow had found himself at Hrodûrim’s neck, holding a knife threateningly close.

“What the..” The winged one went to speak.

“If you dare speak those foul words to Lord Xanin again, I’ll have your head resting on a spike before you could move your finger.” Kai spoke lowly but so terrifyingly so.

“Xan.. Why is there an Allve in your halls, and more specifically why does he know English??”

Kyungsoo really wanted to be asking that.

“Because of this guy here.” Xanin motioned to Kyungsoo.

“Ah.. Cool.” Hrodûrim pressed a finger on the knife and slowly pushed it away. “Listen, I have absolutely no qualm with Xanin. We’re friends, okay?” He held up his hands, as if to surrender himself. “A threat from an Allve is not to be taken lightly.” Hrodûrim laughed awkwardly once the knife was away from his throat.

“Indeed.” Xanin nodded in agreeance. “Kai, Hrodûrim is a friend. Don’t worry.”

Kai immediately settled down and sheathed his knife.

“Um..” Kyungsoo tried to speak up. All attention was put on him. “Shouldn’t you debrief Kai of all this?”

“He’s already been given the details. All he needs now, is the rest of the mission with you. Now, I sent him out to start looking for things to destroy Carn, but I had also been doing my own research.” Xanin spoke. “I wish I could stay longer and help you through this. But I must get going and tend to the other needs of my realm. I don’t expect we’ll ever meet again. As much as I would enjoy new company, it simply was not meant to be… Kai, son of Melanilth’kun, protect him. Solve this mystery and keep him safe.” He put a hand on Kai’s shoulder, Kai found no ability to look the being in the eye. “Kyungsoo. Watch over him. He is strong and protective, but his heart is weak. Push him on. He’ll need all the support you can give him. Keep each other safe, do you hear me? The fate of the universe now lies in your hands… I’ll trust Hrodûrim to give you the next part of this task, as he can better explain its contents.” Xanin looked to Hrodûrim, nodding his head to pass over the responsibility. “Oh, and Kai? Don’t worry about your pills.”

Both Kai and Kyungsoo looked at one another in question.

“Let’s just say I’ve made a few tweaks on your body’s. You’ll be fine without them.” He spoke over his shoulder, just barely making eye contact with the two. “Now if you’ll excuse me. I must attend the front lines.”

Kai bowed his head as Kyungsoo watched the overbearingly tall man walk away. He was not too sure of what just happened, he was sure it something important, though.

“What front lines? Like war?” Kyungsoo asked, turning his attention back to the two.

“Exactly so.” Hrodûrim nodded. “Well, don’t worry about that. You have bigger fish to fry. Leave the war here to us and we’ll leave the universe to you.”

“No pressure.”

Hrodûrim laughed wholeheartedly. “That’s the spirit! Now…” The tall man turned to his side and dug around for an item. As he pulled it out and a breath of air left Kai’s mouth.

“You possess another crystal.” The elf announced as a blue crystal-like item appeared in his hand.

“Only a piece.” Hrodûrim smiled as Kyungsoo’s eyes widened in awe. To his eyes, the blue crystal had a slight pink substance that shimmered in its interior. “It broke at some point while it stayed in the realm I spent time in. And then we used it to defeat a character as vile as Carn.”

“If you have a piece, then there are more?” Kai suddenly asked. His mind racing all the possible outcomes of his new task.

Hrodûrim nodded. “Correct. There are eight all together. Lost, but there are eight. They may be broken, but just a piece like this will work. It should at least, we were able to make this work. Something smaller may not work, however; the power they need will destroy it, it will overrun itself.”

“If there are eight lost, then what do we gather them for?”

“Ages ago, during the first years that the universe was created, was when Carn had been accidentally created. In that time, Carn was small but the universe was also small. So, an ancient civilization began creating a weapon with the power to destroy it. However, the information of who those people were is lost, what their weapons are or where they are have all been is lost to us. I wish I could be of more help, but this is the best we have at stopping Carn. You must find these orbs and the weapon they used. I can link his device to the first planet, where this ancient civilization used to thrive, but I can’t give you more than that. It’s up to you to pinpoint its exact location and find the weapon, my power can only do so much to locate, so this is the best I can offer. There are six left for you to find, so you have a head start. Whatever it is, you must _find_ it.”

“Wait, wait, what? What do you mean there are eight and we have to find them? And the weapon that no one knows where it is?” Kyungsoo snapped.

“And no one knows if it’ll even work. It is unclear if it was ever used. It’s possible the weapon was never even finished. Hell, it could be fake for all we know. But what I do know, is that these crystals are a power source that can do some serious damage to Carn. I’ve seen it done with my own two eyes… Well, not really. I wasn’t entirely there so to speak… but my friends, they all found with it.”

“Wait, are you saying that your friends warded off Carn with just this crystal?” Kyungsoo asked.

“No, not really.” Hrodûrim chuckled. “A piece of Carn had embedded itself into a mortal, because of their unity it was possible to use the power of the gem to destroy the evil. It was a very intense process, I figure someone will write about it someday. You can read all about it then.” A bright toothy smile flashed across Hrodûrim’s face.

Kyungsoo shook his head, “I’m sorry, you do realize that this all sounds ridiculous right? Like nothing of this is as easy as you make it sound. This is all complete bullshit.” Kyungsoo made sure his voice was clear and particularly articulate.

“Yes. I’m well aware. But as magical and fantastical as we are, there is only so much we can do to help. This journey is really up to the two of you now.”

Kyungsoo could feel life slowly draining from his being all while anger teetered its way through his veins.

“Trust me, I know more than anyone what it’s like to feel lost. I would give anything to help you more than this _. Believe me_ , I would.”

“But aren’t you gods or whatever??” Kyungsoo’s voice raised, his neck straining as he spoke. “Don’t you have magical powers to do stuff?”

Hrodûrim’s face fell to a frown. “I myself am not so powerful in magic. I’m merely a servant, a warrior, for my master. Xanin, on the other hand is defiantly more powerful than I am. But his power can only reach so far, especially when he must use most of it to protect this realm and tend to the Well. My masters are spreading themselves thin as it is, the risk of even hosting Kai under our halls is high enough.”

“Why, what’s so risky about that?” Kyungsoo tried to ask, however, a violent vibration shook the floor that they stood upon.

“And that’s your cue.” Hrodûrim yelled with enthusiasm as he dashed for Kai and pulled Kyungsoo by his sleeve. He began to fiddle with the device on Kai’s wrist, flashes of bright light had switched between colors to Kyungsoo’s eyes. “Remember, Xanin has gifted you immortality, however, as soon as you leave you will lose all of it. You will not be able to enter these halls without a master to summon you. I should expect I will never see you again, but I will give you my gift of luck. To further any chance of success. Without you, our worlds will fail. Life will fail and all that we love and hold dear will fail. Do you understand?”

Kyungsoo’s face had still been pale as he watched Hrodûrim, his wings still flat and dragging along the ground. They were mesmerizing in the way flecks of gold seemed to radiate from them, the way gold pulsed throughout his veins and into the feathers. Kai, on the other hand, was completely firm, listening to each word and diligently following Hrodûrim’s words.

“Good. Now, Xanin has also granted your bodies alterations. Even without the medicine that Kai carries, you can travel between worlds and feel little of its effects. Air too heavy or too little in oxygen should not affect you. Breathing underwater, however, is out of the question. Gravity should not have an effect on your bodies, nor will foods. Your bodies are now adaptable to your environment. But make sure you take care, you are not safe from everything. Krakatos is prone to heavy acid rainfalls, the water can melt the skin right of your bones. So, take extra care, find shelter the moment you arrive—”

“Krakatos?” Kyungsoo whispered.

“The planet where all of this supposedly started for the weapon.” Hrodûrim turned to Kyungsoo and placed the blue jewel in his hands. “Protect this with your life. I want this back if you can... It belongs to my love… I do hope to see you guys again, even though that possibility is very unlikely.”

Another violent wave struck the ground, this time a roar of something foreign and destructive sounded after.

“That’s your ex by the way, you best get moving before she gets through.” Hrodûrim pushed them on.

Kai nodded and immediately pulled Kyungsoo to his side by the waist, their hips joined. Kyungsoo was caught off guard by the sudden pull as he was fixed on the broken jewel in his hands.

“I’m sorry what—?”

“Enough talking, go! You must leave!” The angelic being threatened with desperation.

And like each time before, Kai and Kyungsoo had disappeared within a bright luminescent smoke.

 

 

Hrodûrim stood in the same spot, staring as the smoke withered into nothing.

“Why did you lie to them?” His voice called out in the empty hall.

“I don’t believe I know what you mean.” A voice replied without a body.

“You know exactly what I mean… Kyungsoo was never supposed to be a part of this.”

“True. But it is for the best.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because Kai’s chance of survival was raised by four percent.”

Hrodûrim could feel the unsettling information shift throughout his being. “And what is the current number then?”

“Five percent.”

Hrodûrim’s face fell to a frown once again, he turned around, aghast at the number. “You mean to tell me that his original chance of survival was one percent?” Xanin had not been present but Hrodûrim knew the god was there, invisible, but there.

“Precisely, but now that Kyungsoo has joined him, it will be five percent.”

“What is Kyungsoo’s rate of survival then?!”

“...negative two percent.” Xanin responded with a tone much softer than before, one that was reluctant.

Hrodûrim was taken aback, the shock of the situation and appall for the being in the room had taken over. He whispered, “You’ve sent them to their death…”

“No, there is still hope, I have seen it and—”

“Seen what?! One of thousands of possibilities to their future’s? Kyungsoo’s life will be over before he can even get to the next crystal… He was never supposed to be here. This was Kai’s task, and Kai’s task alone.”

“But now he is not alone, and therefore can complete this quest with positive outcomes.” A shape of Xanin began to appear in a cloud of smoke, forming into the giant humanoid from earlier.

“So Kyungsoo is just disposable? Why even bother with them if they’re just going to die?! Why not find yourself better champions? You seem to be so keen on changing the fact that Kai’s journey will not be done alone.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered, the Fates have decided that it would be Kai, therefore Kai will have found a way to be a part of the end of the universe. With or without us. I just gave a little push to help him along.” Xanin had fully appeared in the body, a smug smile upon his lips as he spoke.

Hrodûrim tilted his head, disgust playing on his features. “It wouldn’t have mattered.. It could have been anyone, not just Kyungsoo.”

Xanin stayed silent, his answer playing in the air as he stared the warrior down.

“No, they’re just kids. I get that the Fates have played the biggest part in this, but this is low. Even for you.” His voice had been closer to hostile as their eyes locked.

“God of Mischief.” Xanin’s body evaporated slowly by his feet as an uncomfortable and unsure smile spread his lips.

“To people who made that up about you. You’re not actually a god of mischief. Just because that’s what some call you, doesn’t mean you have to act like it.”

“Hold your tongue.” Xanin snapped, his voice sharp and unclear. It was threatening and very much leveled in power.

Hrodûrim quickly looked away, fists balled by his sides. He was very clearly unhappy.

“I am very fond of you and your company. But I do not tolerate insolence. Servant of Aeon.” He spat in a voice that had been far from anything close to Earth.

“My apologizes my Lord.” Hrodûrim bowed his head, his wings kept down and an air of submission about him. He shot his head up and stared directly in the eyes of the being in front of him. “This universe will perish, and it would have all been for nothing.” He muttered so terribly quietly and so awfully hostile. But he chose not another word and turned on the heel of his foot, walking off and refusing to look back.

A sadness fell over Xanin’s disappearing face as he watched the leaving creature.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2: Elan ha’

Kyungsoo could feel a thick layer of air against his skin and the cool scent of something so familiar against his nostrils. His forehead had been firmly pressed against Kai’s chest, Kai’s arms were also secured around his shoulders as a hand pressed his head against the chest. For just a fleeting moment Kyungsoo felt odd, like he was so protected, and he could stay there for the rest of his life. But that thought was only for a moment and his heart rammed against his chest as the thought came and gone.

Kai smelt like bliss, like an orange zested over pine and was showered with all the comforts of the beach. It was an odd analogy, but Kai did have a particularly intoxicating smell, it was just very difficult to explain. It was not an intense pungent smell, but subtle and just enough to make a person want more. The two released themselves from one another, looking around and taking in their surroundings. As soon as Kyungsoo’s face had met with the world around, a wave of impeccable humidity had hit like wall. It was a depressive feeling, the way it weighed down on his skin and made him feel sluggish and gross.

“Wh-Where are we?” Kyungsoo asked as he looked around the area, foliage of green, purple and red had been overgrown in every direction. Tree’s rose tall and shinned with a glimmer of wetness, like a fresh rainfall. Leaves stood out and brushed against their skin and clothes, leaving a tingling feeling as they turned to take in all of their surroundings. To Kyungsoo’s right seemed like thick dense jungle, the sounds of animals chirping and maybe bugs singing had been most concentrated in that direction, but to his left and behind Kai had been a fair amount of open space. Like they were on an overgrown path the trees seemed to clear above that area the most. Vines fell from branches and cascaded all about them, shapes and sizes varied in the way they grew. Bright orange flowers bloomed across the way, at the bottoms of trees and supported a smell so sweet that it masked the stench of natural jungle decay.

“This is Krakatos…” Kai muttered as he seemed just as in awe as Kyungsoo. He truly had never seen such large vegetation. It made him nervous to think about what kind of fauna would turn up.

Suddenly, a branch had snapped beside the males; they both whipped their heads to the source. But before they could see what it was, the bushes ruffled, and a high-pitched squeal ran off in the other direction.

Kyungsoo backed away from the bushes and found himself tripping over an overgrown root. Kai had caught him before he could fall any further and stood him back up. Kyungsoo stood in his spot, still a little surprised at the fact that he had just fallen and was saved, but mostly to stare at Kai and remember all the thoughts that had been angering him just before they had arrived. He ripped himself from Kai’s arms and stepped back.

Kai’s brows furrowed, “Kyungsoo?” He asked in a careful tone, observing the sudden change in hostility.

Kyungsoo’s gaze was firm, threatening almost, and it made Kai do something that Kyungsoo had never seen before. It made him avoid his eyes. Kai had looked away and bore an expression of pain and guilt. It shocked him for a moment, but it dissuaded him no less from his cause. It seemed that Kai had an idea of why he was so mad.

“You have a lot of explaining to do.” Kyungsoo’s voice came out low and not in the least bit kind. It made Kai honestly flinch. “You’re ex? What did that guy mean, your ex? I thought she was dead. This… This quest or whatever you were doing, going around warning worlds of the imminent death of the universe, it was a lie! It was complete lie! What bullshit are you hiding Kai? Is that even your real name?”

“Kyungsoo, I ask that you please calm down—” He reached out to grab the male and calm him but he had ripped himself away violently.

“No! I don’t even know who you are! I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you.” Kyungsoo shook his head and turned on his heels. He was afraid he would start crying, especially because he was starting to feel his heart do things he never intended for the male. There was so much going through his small head that as he walked away he could barely hear Kai’s calls.

“Kyungsoo! Where are you going?!”

“To find shelter! Isn’t that what that guy said?” He snapped as he moved on.

Kai raised his legs and immediately followed the male, hoping to stop him and catch him. He had turned the male around as soon as he grabbed hold of his shoulders.

“Don’t touch me!” Kyungsoo shouted as he tried to fight against Kai’s hands.

“I never meant to hurt you!” Kai yelled over Kyungsoo’s fighting.

But before either of them could continue, a few drops of mildly cold rain had fallen onto their arms. The rain stung slightly on Kyungsoo’s skin and made him suck in a sharp breath of air at the pain. Without further notice, rain suddenly began to down pour. There was a moment the two looked at one another and had the same “oh no” kind of thought. But in the next split second, a searing sort of pain began to drench itself over Kyungsoo’s skin. He shut his eyes tight as his eyes began to burn, as if onions had been directly rubbed onto them.

Kyungsoo screamed so vulgarly loud and stumbled out of Kai’s arms. He could not see it as the pain in his eyes were fierce, but his skin was beginning to sear away the more the rain fell and ate away at the layers. The pain was unlike any other he had ever felt as it tore all over his body.

Kai screamed for the male the moment Kyungsoo stumbled away to cry out and noticed as his skin burned away. Kai ran over just in time before Kyungsoo lost consciousness and wrapped an arm around his back, holding him limply in his arms as he held another hand up. That hand produced a stream of light, it rose up from the palm of his hand and fell around them, serving as protection from the rain. His own skin had burned, but the effects were not nearly as severe.

The pain level had been so severe to Kyungsoo’s already frazzled mind that as he tried to stay awake, he could see the worry crease across the elf’s face. But it was not long before all had gone dark.

֍ ҉ ֎

Kyungsoo woke in a stupor, a good one that is, as his body felt so calm and so serene. He almost felt like he was home, in his bed, surrounded in his sheets and refusing to get up even though the sunlight seeped in through the blinds. But as he opened his eyes he was met with a very dark room; the crackle of a fire had been off to his side. He lifted his head and noticed the space he was in was enclosed and dark, save for the fire beside him. Kai was nowhere to be seen, just a long hall that had an occasional blue light lighting small spaces. It seemed far, like it led down a never-ending hall as the blue lights continued.

He sat up and waited for a moment if there would be any pain. His body did not hurt and it was the oddest thing, did he imagine all of that searing pain earlier? He rubbed his eyes and found that they were fine, nothing was out of the ordinary. He lifted his arms and found that there was nothing there, even though his skin felt like it was tearing apart, there was absolutely nothing. He had noticed that he was not wearing the same clothes from before, these clothes were dark in the little light the fire provided and were a bit rough to his skin. They were not terribly comfortable, they almost reminded him of scrubs with the way they fit his figure, baggy and wide when really, they looked like a kimono undershirt, minus the folds of cloth around his arms. He had been covered with a cloth, like a blanket and a pile of the same clothes acted as his pillow. It was all purposeful to make him comfortable, but he did not remember any of it.

Suddenly, the sound of something like claws pattering against the floor and running away scared Kyungsoo.

“Kai!” He called out in a rather raised voice, hoping there would be an answer. He called out again, this time braver so Kai could hear him if he was out there. He shifted all around, turning each way to see where the male might have been. To his sides had been dark, cold and eerie, but his back had been against a wall; he was perched on a small ledge of some sort.

“Ahhh.. Kai where are you…” Kyungsoo muttered as he shrank back against the wall and held the blanket close to himself. Even if it could hardly offer any protection, the warmth was still needed.

Just as he kept his head up and on the lookout for Kai, a figure had emerged from the unending hall in front of him. There must have been a passage off to the side, but Kyungsoo could not see it. Immediately his heart was put to rest as he noticed the bright white locks of hair as it sprinted down the hall. A torch had been held in his hand, but even as he ran by the blue lights they grew brighter with color , lighting the whole hall as he ran. Kyungsoo could now see what looked like metal-work on all four walls. As if he were in a building constructed of pure metal.

“Kai?!” Kyungsoo involuntarily yelled upon the sight of the man and removed the cloth to run for him.

They met almost halfway, closer to the small campsite than anything, but they met and embraced in a hug. Kyungsoo had no idea of why he felt like that, so desperate to see him and so desperate to hold him close. It may have had something to do with the fact that he was beyond scared of this whole situation and that he was the closest thing to home that he had, but those thoughts didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Kai was holding him so protectively with just one arm and his face pressed to the top of his.

“You should be resting.” Kai said to break the silence, Kyungsoo was reluctant to let go.

Kyungsoo did not respond and simply kept his face nestled in the taller’s bosom.

“Well.. I am glad to see you are well.” His voice came out soft and endearing. It was another voice he had never experienced from the male. It made his heart thrum against his chest and cheeks turn red.

Eventually, Kai had separated them and lead Kyungsoo back to the bed by his hand. He sat him down and kept his hand in Kyungsoo’s, placing his other on top as soon as they were comfortable.

“Are you hungry?”

“No, why? How long was I out for?” Panic suddenly ran through Kyungsoo’s veins.

“Just a couple hours, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t hungry. You haven’t eaten in a while. I’m not sure if anything here is edible enough for you. Xanin’s powers can only do so much to keep you alive.. Especially since you had such a harsh reaction to the rain… Had Xanin not gifted you with Resilience, you would have perished within seconds…”

“I—”

“Kyungsoo.” Kai interrupted. “I never wanted any of this. I never wanted to be given this task, and I never wanted any of this for you. I did not think it would be you.. I dare not defy my god… But… For your safety and your sake, I would do it… Humans are so weak, so vulnerable to sickness and possess very little to protect themselves. This.. I don’t think I have the power to keep you safe. Had I acted any slower, I might have lost you to this rain… But Do Kyungsoo. I am fond of you. And taking on this task alone is frightening to my mind. If I was meant to do it alone, I don’t think I could. But with you by my side, I would have courage to do it…” He paused to give himself a moment and gather his thoughts. “I understand… If you do not want this, and the moment I finish explaining to you the truth of my life.. I will gladly take you home. Your chance of life for a little longer is greater than if you stay with me, so I more than understand your predicament.”

Kyungsoo’s cheeks felt hot, and red they were with embarrassment. He hated confrontation more than anything and this situation was no less different. He looked down at their connected hands, he felt odd in this position, as if it was out of character for Kai. And he was right, this was not something Kai or any of his people would do to comfort someone. He was simply trying his hand at being more human for Kyungsoo.

“Kai.. I don’t know—”

“No.” He interrupted again. “Maybe it is because I am afraid of the answer, but… You should not have to answer just yet… At least wait until I’ve finished my tale?”

Kyungsoo sighed with a firm gaze, “As long as what you say is the truth and nothing but the truth.”

“I promise.” Kai said as his eyes locked onto Kyungsoo’s and he raised a hand to his chin. A thumb and index finger held onto it gently. “If you hold mine like this, then I will seal the bond of our promise. Then I cannot lie to you until the story is over.”

Kyungsoo furrowed his brows and tilted his head at the action, his heart thumped against his chest but continued to raise a hand anyways. As they sat there holding each other’s chins, Kai closed his eyes and whispered a few words. Kyungsoo watched as his finger lit up on Kai’s chin and he could see the light emanating from his own chin in his peripheral. His body suddenly began to hum, a buzz emanating about as a tingling feeling started at his toes and worked its way up quickly to his chest. It disappeared within a moment and Kai retracted his hand. Kyungsoo did the same soon after.

“Now I cannot tell a lie.”

Kyungsoo nodded, he felt a little guilty that he had gone through such measures just so he would believe him.

“Is there anything you would like to know before I go ahead?”

“Yeah.. Why were you sick? If I didn’t let your god help you, you would have died..”

“I had run out of my Resilience medicine. My people created a medicine that would help Hopper’s as they traveled planet to planet. It is medicine infused with the magic of our people that allows our body to adapt to almost any environment. I had only three when we found each other. I had been saving my last one for the most crucial moment of travel, and as their effects only last for about five days in one go, I had to use them sparingly. It was what I put in your mouth before we arrived in the Hall of Five, just in case the environment we traveled to did not favor to your body. But now that Xanin has interfered, we do not need them anymore.”

“So your body was reacting normally to the planet then?”

“Yes, the gravity and air pressure was playing a toll and my ability to absorb the necessary nutrients to live was reduced.”

“Why…! Why didn’t you tell me?! I would have helped you get what you needed.” Kyungsoo exclaimed.

“It’s fine. What the past is, is what the past is. Your hospitality is still greatly appreciated.”

Kyungsoo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Alright fine. Then why me? Why am I the one who has to be with you during all this?”

Kai stayed silent for a moment.

“I don’t know. I don’t know why it’s you. That’s just how it is, this is what Xanin has wished and this is what he believes a force greater than his own has chosen… I guess, I’ll just start here then.. From the beginning and how it all lead to you, to our meeting.”

The tone Kai had used seemed drained, like he was slowly becoming more and more tired with each of his passing thoughts. This made Kyungsoo sit back against the wall of the ledge and make himself comfortable, it seemed like it would be a long story. And he was right. A long sort of monologue it was.

“My name _is_ Kai, Prince Moka’inim Akimai’ith, second born of the High King of Eleto and first for the crown. That all of which I have told you is true. What I left out is that I am banished from my home. Banished from my planet to an indefinite period… My banishment caused me to run, far away from my home and further than any planet I had ever dared to travel. I left unexpectedly and with only the clothes on my back. I never stayed in the same place for more than a couple of days, because I am being chased. And I have not the heart to face my sins and let what is chasing me destroy me once and for all, it is only the justice I deserve”

“In my travels of running from what hunts me, my device led me to Xanin. He had personally chosen me in the midst of Hopping and gave me my task. He warned me of the imminent danger of the universe and its entirety and trusted me with finding the orbs to destroy Carn, once and for all. Eleto is close to its demise, Carn is not far off and is rapidly multiplying. It’s only a matter of time before my home planet is consumed. Although I am banished, I would do anything to save her. I love my people, I love my home. So, I accepted the task. But Xanin made it a point that I could not do it alone. He had seen in my future another being, one that would help me, he could not tell me who and that I had to find them. So, as he sent me back out to look for solutions, I stumbled into you right after. I had just transported from the realm and to Earth. Meeting you and not even realizing that my device was near broken I thought I would not be able to complete my task. Little did I realize then that I would even need you to by the end of our time on Earth. I had no idea this would be our fate. I promise you.” Kai leaned in and rested a hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. His eyes were firm and glinted softly with the fire that burned just to the side. Kyungsoo could feel his heart constrict staring into the beautiful golden eyes. He simply nodded in response, believing that this was true.

Kai removed his hand from his shoulder and looked down at his lap before continuing.

“...What hunts me is Aleyth. The woman you saw in my memories.”

Kyungsoo stiffened upon the memory, of feeling the happiness and hurt when looking upon her. Suddenly, the guilt he remembered feeling did not seem so out of place—there was finally a connection. But then he remembered seeing himself wrapped in a blanket and felt his body grow hot. He shut the thought down and berated himself, thinking that this was Kai’s moment to talk and it was important he paid attention.

“Except she is not that anymore. Aleyth… Called upon the Darkness. I’m sorry, you’ll have to forgive my translations. I’ve been doing my best to translate words that I would normally use as nouns in my tongue. English is simple, yet complex in that there are many words to define the same thing. I hope you understand them..”

“Oh, you’re fine. I think I got the jist of it.” Kyungsoo quickly slipped in and waved the male off.

Kai nodded, “Then.. The Darkness. We call it Hekai. Ama’ith Hekai. The Consumption of Darkness… It is a dark power that consumes everything in an Allve. Created by my people and used only by our people… My people were once weak and had been granted the gift of magic by Xanin to protect ourselves from foreign enemies. And as we developed this magic to be entirely our own, it came with a great cost. Darkness had awoken and would consume the Allve who brooded in negative emotions. The Darkness over the millennia transformed into its own entity and calls out to my people, tempting them when they fall into a dark state of mind. Some willingly let it in, but most do their best to fight it away. To let it consume you means death. The Darkness will consume you in the end, no matter the circumstance. You will become immensely more powerful than you were before the consumption for a time, but in the end, the power will grow, and the host will be consumed by the power. The darkness will then get sent back into the void it came from and fester until it is ready for more hosts. Hekai is dangerous. And when an Allve has accepted Hekai Ama’ith, it tends to be out of revenge. Sending rage upon cities and innocent lives…. This is what had happened. Aleyth accept Hekai and targeted me. We were both banished from Eleto, so as soon as I left she gathered a ship and began to trace me through the galaxies. And somehow, she had found me in Xanin’s realm just now. Who knows how long it will be before she finds me again… Her intention is to destroy me, to end my life and make sure I never see the light of day… If she captures us or you and uses you as bait, I don’t know what will happen. Both of us will die in the end and I understand the want of not needing that. I have been running from her for almost three years now to human standards, and the Darkness still has not consumed her. Her power grows every minute she looks for me. There has never been a recorded case in history of someone surviving so long. Kyungsoo to finish this quest with me means to be hunted by her, the chance of escape is almost zero.. I will understand if you do not wish for this.”

“Why is she hunting you?” Kyungsoo asked with a small voice. It came out rasped and low, it seemed as if he could barely find any words to speak.

“Because I killed her father.” Kai looked up to stare at Kyungsoo. Their eyes met and a sadness of guilt laced them so fiercely that Kyungsoo nearly wanted to wrap his arms around the male and tell him that everything would be alright. “I loved her. With every part of my soul. She may have loved me, even. But as fate would have it, we did not have happiness in our end”

“It started with my brother. The eldest of two, rightful heir to the throne. He had been murdered, right before my eyes. I held him in my arms as his final breath left his body… It is difficult to kill an Allve. We can selfheal in seconds, but a paralyzing poison could do the trick, even if another tried to help heal. There was nothing I could do…” Kai scrunched his face and curled a fist as he looked back down into his lap. It seemed the memories were something of a trigger, something that both angered him and saddened him.

Kyungsoo raised a still hand and placed it gently on Kai’s shoulder. The male froze and somehow immediately began to calm down. Kyungsoo noticed that Kai did this a lot and wondered if it was an Allve thing, that, and he hoped it would calm the elf down—which it did. Thankfully.

Kai took a sharp breath of air into his lungs and squared his shoulders. He gazed into Kyungsoo’s eyes, something desperate screaming on the inside.

“You don’t have to talk about it…” Kyungsoo muttered.

“I have to. I want you to know.” He spoke with utter surety.

“No, if it hurts, you really don’t have to.” Kyungsoo pressed and tightened his grip on Kai’s shoulder.

Kai grabbed Kyungsoo’s hand and removed it from his shoulder. “I want to.” His voice was softer, gentle even and Kyungsoo could swear he saw a glimmer in his eyes—like they had gotten brighter.

Again, a wave of heat flushed over Kyungsoo’s body and he was taken in by the majesty of the alien before him. Kai held onto his hand for the rest of the story, not letting go and firmly grasping it with both hands in a fashion that made both his thumbs to rest on top of the small petite hand.

“My brother loved me like any other. He watched over me so closely that it was almost overbearing. Most would be annoyed by his presence... But my brother had always wanted an older sibling. When I was born he did everything in his power to include me in everything. He was probably the most prominent figure in my life, and I did not mind it. I loved my brother, so very much. He was the one who taught me to use my Calus.” He motioned to the device on his arm. “We would hop between worlds once I started getting the hang of it and would explore all sorts of different civilizations. We often found ourselves in a lot of trouble,” he chuckled. “But it wasn’t anything we could ever get out of… But one day… We had been walking the city of Portan. It is dirty and what you would call, ‘a melting pot’ of species… We were in disguise that day, as princes of one of the most renowned species in the universe, it’s important for us to keep a rather low profile… No one was supposed to know that we were there, but as we were just walking down an alleyway to get away from the hoard of people in the market, someone had walked by and pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the side. It was poisoned heavily in Targan blood, a paralysis poison that is strong enough to kill in seconds. Had a human been injected they would have died in three seconds. It took two minutes of watching my brother’s body shut down and watch as life left his eyes… I was driven with anger and chased after the culprit before I cradled my brother to his death. But the creature had already killed itself before I could get to it… Someone had hired him, someone knew that we would be traveling and hired an assassin to kill my brother. Driven with anger, I took his body home and summoned a council to find out who had done it.” What he did not tell Kyungsoo was that he had teleported between worlds to the throne room of his home in the middle of an important meeting of high rulers around the world. He never mentioned the tears and screams he wailed for his brother in that room.

“Aleyth.. She was my brother’s lover. Her father was a known merchant and the mightiest of them, so their meetings were frequent at gatherings… I loved her too. Despite their soul’s being bound to one, I still loved her. She would have been queen with my brother, and a great one at that. My father had no objections to it, I had to bite my tongue and support their love. I did, I truly was happy for them, but part of me was greedy and wanted her to myself… When word got out that my brother was dead, I had been her source of comfort. We were each other’s ‘rock’ as you would say. This is how we became closer and she eventually learned to love me as well. To most it may have been fake and that I was the ‘rebound’ but I do believe at some point she did care for me as I did for her… In my culture, once you are soul bound to a person you can never bind to another. Because her and my brother were bound, I knew we could never be together. But it was something I was willing to risk for her.”

“Wait, it’s not like a fate thing? Like fate brings you together and you find your one true love?”

“Nothing is certain how our love works, but once you share this bond it is forever. It is rare to find adultery in my people. Bonds cannot be broken easily, it takes a great power and great deal of time to break a bond if one is made. Even death does not break the bond, but something is lost. Because of this lost feeling, it is possible for the heart to love another. It will never be the same as who you were bound with, but there is a love”

“Over the course of a few years, we grew closer and were able to create very fond memories. But I had made a mistake towards the end… I was still upset that my brother’s murder was not found. I felt like my father was not doing everything in his power to solve the murder, so I had taken things into my own hands… I had discovered the murderer, or at least who I thought was behind it… Everything had led to Aleyth’s father. It was hard to piece together, but my results no matter how much I tried to disprove them had found its way to him. Each time I pieced the information together and it led to him, I grew angrier. My blood began to boil with the thought that we had trusted this man and brought him into our home and allowed him to feed our people… Driven by this anger I went to my father and demanded the detainment of Aleyth’s father.. My father laughed in my face and said that what I had found was wrong, he did not believe a single word I had to say. Instead, he told me to focus on preparing myself to take over the crown. It would take years for me to get to the level my brother was at… Infuriated with my father, I took matters into my own hands. I left in the middle of the night and snuck into the Eri’intalen household. There… I had slit the throat of Raruren Eri’intalen, father of Aleyth Eri’intalen.”

A small gasp left Kyungsoo’s lips. He knew that the story would eventually lead to this, but hearing it was something different.

“He was found the next morning by Aleyth. The kingdom was in a roar and I was just waking up when guards knocked on my door to arrest me.” Kai’s voice began to lower, the shame in his voice physically hurt Kyungsoo to hear, like a bad case of second hand embarrassment. “I made no real attempt to hide that I did it, and many people had seen me climb into the house. But most just thought I was visiting Aleyth in the night… I was brought before my father, restrained and dulled of my powers. I was put on trial in my nightwear.” A sadistic laugh left his lips. “I had no remorse then. I felt like justice had been made finally.. But when the trial started and Aleyth walked in, hair a mess and eyes stained red and her skin a sickly gray color, I knew in that moment that I had made a mistake… Over and over I apologized in my head, I had desperately wished the use of time traveling was not banished and that the magic still existed. I wanted to reverse what I had done. I selfishly thought of myself and my dead unavenged brother that I did not care for the justice of Aleyth… But as my trial came to an end, I was under house arrest with my powers stripped until another trial could be held… I was under arrest for months. And in that time, Aleyth had been allowing the Darkness to consume her… She had been driven by grief over the loss of her lover and her father. Her mother had died in childbirth, so she was alone. Utterly alone. The Darkness might have been a friend of hers for a long time, maybe even before my brother’s death. But it must have stood off to the side waited for her to waiver, until the final straw. And that was me, the new love she thought she could move on with who killed her father. A betrayal like no other… And as she morphed with the power, she came for me. Destroying my room and lifting the magic that repressed my powers… I could not escape from her power and she just… She demolished everything in her path, portions of the city had been destroyed and innocent lives were lost that day as I ran from her. But the authorities were eventually able to contain her, and we were then both put on trial again. Her immediate punishment was banishment for letting the Hekai into her body. I was then also banished as the council and people thought that Aleyth would not rest with her darkness and would come for me despite the banishment… Since I was part of the cause of her Hekai, the murder of her father and destruction of much of the city, I was sentenced to banishment… Where not long after, I was transported to Xanin’s realm and found you even sooner after.”

Everything felt particularly quiet, just the sound of the fire popping and the white buzzing noise of the hall.

“…Did he do it?” Kyungsoo asked in a soft voice.

“What?”

“Did her father order the murder?”

Kai’s head fell with a shake, “My evidence never proved inconclusive. But the Court and investigations never showed otherwise. I don’t know.”

Kyungsoo nodded in understanding and fiddled with his hands.

“Kyungsoo. I can’t ask you to continue with me. I do not possess the right. You know now why I am hunted, and your future seems to have a certainty of death if you continue with me… I can ask no more of you from this moment on.”

Kyungsoo did not know how to respond and bit his tongue back. There was so much that Kai revealed, and it made him relieved in a weird sort of way.

“My dad left when I was seven.” Kyungsoo suddenly interjected with his word vomit of thoughts. “Well, he didn’t leave, more like, kicked my mother and I out and made us live on the streets until we got to my grandma’s house… So… I didn’t kill anyone nor do I have a murdered brother.. You know what, I can’t even properly relate to anything you just said. But.. I know what it’s like to be kicked out of your own home. A place you thought you could feel safe in, when it would just as easily get rid of you.”

“I don’t.. Understand what this has to do with—?”

“What I’m saying is.. I’m trying to empathize with you, damn it. Humans tend to do a thing where when a person confides in another, the other confides in them. You know, give and take, and repeat…” Kyungsoo stared the elf down, his chin tilted down hoping the male would get it. “You know? Make our bond stronger or something?”

Kai still seemed confused as to what the information had to do with the current problem.

“Never mind,” Kyungsoo waved off. “Okay. Let’s do this. How about I help you find the orb, or whatever, in this place and we’ll see how I feel after that. Okay?”

Kai seemed to lighten at this. He straightened his back and grew a small smile on his plump lips.

“It’s not like I can just go back anyways. I’m probably a wanted man. I might as well be banished.” Kyungsoo grumbled as he turned away and rolled his eyes.   

“Then we can be banished together.” Kai quipped as Kyungsoo stood to his feet.

Kyungsoo whipped around to Jongin with wide unexpected eyes. A gentle smile had graced Kai’s features.

“Empathy. Give and take.” He smiled a bit wider and this pulled at Kyungsoo’s heart so terribly so.

“You’ll be the end of me.” He mumbled ever so softly under his breath and quickly turned away. “Okay, so let’s get started. Where are we?”

“You must rest first.” Kai stood up and placed his hands on the smaller’s shoulders, trying to guide him back to sit.

“I feel fine, really I do.” He tried to brush the taller off, but it was difficult when Kai seemed to be at least ten times stronger. “.. Thank you. For what you did. Thank you for making the pain go away.”

“Of course.” Kai bowed his head forward and placed a hand over his nearly bare chest.

Kyungsoo blushed for the millionth time and quickly changed the subject. “Where are my clothes though?”

“The rain ate away at it. It was covered in holes and soaked up the water which furthered the acceleration of skin decay on your body. I had to remove them and replace them with these. I found them in a room down the hall.”

Kyungsoo had half a mind to yell and be embarrassed about the fact that Kai had seen him naked but there were probably a lot of other things much more important than that.

“Where are we?”

“One of the ruins in the earth. They go for miles below the surface, most likely created by a highly advanced civilization in the early years of the universe. It’s been abandoned for much longer than it was inhabited… It’s possible the change in the ecosystem was what drove them out, that or something else. Something more dangerous or natural extinction.”

“So what do we do? Follow the ruin to the center of the earth?”

“It may help us find what we need. But I do not know what we’re looking for, it’s entirely possible we won’t need to. Also.” Kai’s face turned to stone, like something had been gravely wrong. This unsettled Kyungsoo. “Something moves in the lower levels. I feel its dark presence and hear its numbers. They scurry around, like claws scraping on the metal.”

“What are they?”

“I don’t know. I dared not leave you alone for too long.”

Kyungsoo sat back down on the ledge. His body succumbing to the hardness and overall defeat that was starting to creep up on him. He looked over at Kai, not daring to ask of what they should do. For all he wanted was to sit home watch a movie and eat buttered popcorn. It was more mentally exhausting to be in the movie plot than to be watching it. He sighed out.

“I see your clothes made it.” Kyungsoo spoke with a tinge of snark.

“My clothes are made of a very durable fiber. The effects were not nearly as intense as yours.”

Kyungsoo snickered and cursed how beautiful the man was in his all white, revealing outfit.

“Kyungsoo…” Kai suddenly spoke, it grabbed the male’s attention with a perk of his head. “Would you be upset if I showed you your reflection?”

“No, why?” Kyungsoo raised a brow.

“Eleth an.” He spoke clearly and most gracefully as a bright light appeared in his hands. He held up the light and watched as it formed to Kyungsoo’s face, showing color and every little detail of what Kyungsoo looked like in that exact moment.

Kyungsoo was taken aback by the magic, but even more so by the status of his hair. His eyes widened, and a gasp emitted from his lips as he raised his hands slowly to touch the strands of hair, or lack thereof.

“My hair..” He whispered as he picked up a long strand and watched as it fell in the sea of other mismatched pieces. His hair had been distorted, almost completely bald in some patches.

“Humans are rather… Fond of appearances, I’ve come to learn. I thought it best you knew..”

“...I-I.. I don’t even know what to do.” Kyungsoo breathed out. “I have to just shave it all off if I want it to be even.”

“Would you like me to do it?” Kai added quietly.

Kyungsoo thought to himself, playing with the strands of loose hair. “...Can you?”

“I have a knife, it will not be hard to take it all off.”

Kyungsoo looked up at Kai with sorrow filled eyes. He might as well do it, it wasn’t like he could magically grow his hair back.

“Wait! You can’t make hair grow, can you?” Kyungsoo blurted when the idea went by his head.

Kai chuckled, “No, I am sorry. I would have tried a while ago if I could… But I can create an illusion so that when people see you, you have hair.”

Kyungsoo seriously thought about it for a moment, but quickly dismissed it. “Nah, don’t waste your powers like that.”

“I would not mind.” Kai suddenly added.

Kyungsoo shook his head, “No, no. It’s fine.. You can cut it off.”

“Are you sure?” He said as he stood up and pulled out the silver knife that he had used so long ago to slit Kyungsoo’s neck.

“No.. But it’s already half gone so there’s no point in stopping.”

“Right. I will be gentle.”

It was then the thought of Kai having not made any physical notice to the change in his appearance that his cheeks began to feel warm again. He looked like a complete buffoon, and yet, Kai did not seem at all bothered by it. A light smile crept up on his lips as he turned around for Kai.

֍ ҉ ֎

“You keep touching it.”

“It’s a weird feeling! I can’t stop running my hand through it.” Kyungsoo snorted, “Through? More like on. I don’t have hair anymore.”

The two had been walking side by side down the hall, Kai holding the torch he had made earlier and Kyungsoo running his hand through his hair every second he had. His hair was sporting a solid buzz cut, and surprisingly very even despite it being done with a knife. Leave it to the perfection of a space elf to get the job done.

Most of their journey down the hall was spent in silence, mostly because Kyungsoo was tense and straining to hear for even the smallest of noise out of place. Despite the fear of not seeing beyond the darkness in front of him, he was still fascinated with the way the blue lighting would automatically turn on when they would get close enough. It was no magic that Kai possessed that turned it on. It was part of the mechanical system that had been abandoned for eons, yet still working as if it had been around for just a couple of years.

The end of the hall had been shorter than the two had anticipated, instead, they had come upon a room that was wide and spacious, lit up in the light blue color of the machines and had a pedestal in the middle. A bridge rose above the pedestal, a small one but it connected the two sides.

“It’s an elevator.” Kai suddenly said after only taking a glance. Kyungsoo furrowed his brows and saw that it was no normal elevator.

“Ah, like one of those video game elevators where you just float down huh?”

Kai had not responded and noticed that there had been a control panel at the bridge edge they were standing before. On the other side of the bridge had been a similar set up, the same control panel had been the pedestal in the center of the room.

Kai had fiddled with the panel in front of him, pressing buttons that appeared on nothing, almost like they had hovered like holograms. Their orange and pink symbols rippling every time he would press a button.

“Do you know what it says?” Kyungsoo asked as he looked over his shoulder.

“Not quite. This is a very ancient language with no basic structure. It’s very complex to piece together by just a control panel. They look more like hieroglyphics than a structured language.” He shot his head up and looked at the other panel. “Kyungsoo, stay here, and press this button when I say so.”

Kyungsoo nodded and watched as he ran across the bridge.

Kai fiddled for a moment until he gave the signal (a simple yell across the reverberating room). They pressed their hands against the buttons and listened as the room around them groaned with the crashes and shifts of metal. It was a terrifying sound, not knowing if the room would cave in on them.

“To the center!” Kai yelled as he pointed to the pedestal below them.

Both immediately ran from their spots and down a ramp that lead into the indent of the room. It was not a perfect circle with the way the ramp twirled into the center, rather, structured so that a hard edge would jut to a new position and circle around, much in the shape of a hexagon.

The two had run down on opposite sides as the ramps had only lead down in such a way. But as they ran for the center of the machine (the pedestal) a loud noise, unfamiliar and almost robotic had screeched. It was unpleasant and grating to both their ears.

“What was that?” Kyungsoo asked over the loud shifting noises of machine behind the walls.

“I’m not sure. And it did not sound friendly. It sounded like a call, like.. It was talking.”

Suddenly, a door behind them had opened. They had no idea that there was even a door, it looked like the rest of the walls. The door opened by six triangles retracting and revealing a hoard of blue lighted figures. They had all floated into the room in their odd shapes, irregular and pointed at the top. Kai wasted not a second and pressed the button in the middle of the pedestal. He did not want to wait around for the floating robotic creatures to find them.

Kyungsoo was frozen in place, terrified by whatever the creatures were and how the blue light in the center of their bodies had projected a ray of light like a fan and allowed it to trickle over every object in the room. But before the robotic creatures could meet with the two humanoids, the floor had suctioned them with an immense force by their feet and slammed into the ground at an impeccable speed. It made Kyungsoo quickly lose his balance and fall over, Kai had caught him in time and held him in his arms as the elevator sunk deep into the ground. It was an uncomfortable position, given that their feet were glued to the floor, but at least he would not fall.

The elevator only moved for a few seconds before coming to a sudden slow down and had traveled three times slower until it came to a halt.

The room was dark, but the two knew that it was large, like the last they had just come from. The noises of machines echoed far and wide in the room as barely any light had lit the scene around them. The force keeping them suctioned had released and Kyungsoo quickly fell in step to Kai, clung to his chest and gripping the white cloth as they stared at the darkness before them. Kai’s torch nor the ray of light shining from the room above was enough, just enough to light them. Kai kept a strong arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulders, his eyes even squinting to see the best to its ability. He could make out shapes similar to the room before, but the darkness allowed for little and it was hard to discern what noises came from where as the room clicked and moaned with the movement of heavy machinery. It was loud and obnoxious, sounds that reminded Kyungsoo of an MRI machine for some reason. Suddenly, a figure had scurried by and Kai’s eyes could just see the tail end of it. Another flash of shadow dashed by, this time making a noise of heavy gurgles as it ran by. Still it was too soft for Kyungsoo to hear. Kai’s head whipped in every direction he heard the noise, pulling Kyungsoo closer as he did so.

“I feel like we’re being watched.” Kyungsoo whispered so softly that he was afraid even Kai could not hear him.

But as a loud click of the floor beneath shook them, blue lights immediately turned on and the room was illuminated. Dozens of foul looking creatures that crawled on four legs like apes had littered the floor. The sudden change in light scared them, causing most of them to hiss and cower with sharp rodent like teeth. Their faces jutted out and eyes bulged as opaque white bulbs of light. Their bodies nearly hairless, leaving bones to protrude from their backs and out of every angle in which they bent.

Kyungsoo gasped at the sight of them and instinctively grabbed even harder onto Kai, wishing for nothing more than to fly back up the shaft and face the robots above.

What neither Kai nor Kyungsoo knew was that the moment Kyungsoo had let out the breath of air he had been holding did it reach the nostrils of the beasts and cause their mouths to water with an insatiable hunger. They had not eaten good food for quite a long time.

Two of the foul creatures raced toward them, making Kai pull out his knife and push one back. The second had come from the side and found its chest pierced with the silver knife. While Kai had thrown the body away another had attacked Kyungsoo at the leg, he screamed at the sudden forced and kicked the creature square in the head. It seemed to hurt him more than the creature.

Kai quickly switched their positions and released Kyungsoo and shoved the torch in the face of the creature. It squealed something awful, grating against their ears as it scurried off. The stench of the creatures had been putrid, especially the foul smell of their blood as Kai would slice the few that dared come too close. But it was getting to be overbearing, especially when hordes of them started spilling over the edge and running for them.

“Kai!” Kyungsoo had screamed when the male started to get too far from him and a particular creature had been stalking him.

Without even glancing at the male, Kai had slipped two knives from his pocket and flung them at the beast. It squealed when they entered its nose and what Kyungsoo assumed was a temple. It died just a few moments after it tried to run off.

Another creature jumped from the side of the ledge and pinned Kyungsoo to the ground. The male whimpered with each struggle that it took to keep the vile creature from biting his face off. Its claws had been held in Kyungsoo’s hands as he fought the creature, it was strong, much stronger than Kyungsoo could handle and it was large, about the size of a ten year old child.

Kai had appeared suddenly and had managed to take the beast off whilst upside down. He had vaulted over Kyungsoo’s body and grabbed the creature, using that as momentum to throw the creature away. It was quite the awesome feat, but it was no match when they were severely outnumbered. Kai had pulled Kyungsoo up and held him close against his chest once more, his face stern in a growl and his knife threatening anything that dared get to close. But even as the hoard closed in, something from above had swooped down and shattered the creature’s lines.

The robotic beasts from above had come from the opening of the elevator and released what looked like beams of blue light. Each creature that met the light had squealed and burned, some of them even catching fire if their bodies were not severed in half. Other robots had extended appendages released from their underside that flung around and electrocuted or stabbed them. It was quick work as the beasts began to retreat, they seemed to greatly fear the robots.

Lucky for the two males, the robots had missed them completely, not even acknowledging their existence.

By the time all the beasts had laid dead on the ground, a rather smaller version of the robots had appeared before them and scanned them with the same blue light as before. The blue light in the center of its face turned purple and continued to scream at them in a mesh of what appeared to be the robot’s communication. When nothing happened after the initial sounds, the robot repeated.

“What is it doing?” Kyungsoo asked as he stared at the floating device before them. It was rather high above them.

“It may be trying to communicate with us.” Kai whispered back.

The robot made the noise again, this time Kai responded in his natural tongue. The robot was silent for a moment before speaking again, this time repeating things that sounded like Kai’s language.

“English, do you know it?” Kai suddenly changed.

The robot paused again.

“Recognizable.” The robot repeated in a distorted way, it had no distinct definition as to what kind of voice it was, neither masculine nor feminine. It was just simply a robotic metallic voice. “I am Master Guard. I protect and function these facilities as programed millions of years ago.”

A shiver had run down Kyungsoo’s spine, causing him to physically shake at the eerie yet amazing conversation that was happening before his eyes.

“I command the sentinels to protect the Tel. We hibernate until called upon, as our masters programed before your time... A great power is coming,” Kyungsoo froze at the robot’s words. “And we have awoke to its presence. Are you not here to use the Tel.”

Kyungsoo supposed it was a question but the lack of inflection hardly made it seem that way.

“What is the Tel?”

The robot paused, simply bearing down on them.

“The Tel is a massive weapon. Connect the pieces of power and create an energy opposing anti-matter. All would perish upon its power.”

Suddenly, the robot did not seem so friendly.

“You know what Carn is?” Kai asked quickly.

“Carn. It is a name to describe the,” A series of sounds had emitted from the robot, unintelligible noises that Kai could not discern. “Yes. We know what Carn is. We were designed for the sole purpose of protecting this machine. The machine that will destroy Carn.”

“This is it?” Kyungsoo mumbled, “We’re here? We found the machine?” His voice piqued with a slight excitement, he couldn’t believe they had managed to find their way to the right place.

“It may be. But where it is, or what it looks like is the next question.” Kai said to the human in his arms.

“I will lead the way. Follow me.” The robot suddenly spoke and turned, gliding its way through to a door on the other side of the room.

Kai and Kyungsoo followed, the robot was very forgiving with their slow movements. Down halls similar to the ones above them they had traveled, heavily guarded by the sentinel robots that would ward off any of the vile creatures that dared to pop out of the shadows of the light. They had finally come to stop at a room, a room not quite so big as the elevator room but big enough. In the center of it was another structure, small, about the height of Kyungsoo’s lower stomach.

In the center of it held a solid platform. It was large and filled with two rings surrounding a circle indent. In the two rings also held sporadic circles carved into the platform. It was a large piece of  structure, it spanned just a head taller than Kai.

Kyungsoo moved in close to the structure, inspecting it closely and noticing the thick layer of dust that coated it. At least, what he assumed to be dust. He put his hands on the edge of the structure and blew hard on it, making the pieces of dust fly up and float about in the air. But as he did so the surface of the table like structure had hummed and began to slowly grow in a bright white color. Kyungsoo stumbled backwards, afraid that he had done something wrong.

“This is Tel. A machine powered by,” Another series of inaudible noises left its body.

“The orbs.” Kai had muttered as he looked to Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo quickly took note and reached into his pocket for the blue crystal that Hrodûrim had given him.

The robot flew in fast and expected the crystal closely with its blue light, a scanner ray forming over it.

“You possess a,” The noise came again.

“Part of one. I think it used to be bigger.” Kyungsoo added.

“Indeed. But it will do. It is hard to break these power sources. I only wonder how destruction came upon it.” The robot hovered away and looked at both humanoids again. “You seem to know what you need to do. You possess one already, do you not have others?”

“We only have two.” Kai spoke and raised his wrist. “One powers my calus.”

“That one definitely used to be bigger.” Kyungsoo added again.

“Interesting.” The robot spoke plainly. “Then you would know that there are eight total. You must find them to complete the Tel. They power the machine and together produce a power that would greatly harm Carn.”

“How do we find them?” Kai asked.

“Over here.” The robot flew over to the edge of the room and a screen began to light up, one like the pedestal that they had pressed for the elevators.

The robot seemed to control the panel without touching it, its single light switching around colors as the screen changed. Kyungsoo watched in complete awe.

Before them a map had appeared, a map that looked of stars and planets. Kyungsoo could hardly believe what his eyes were seeing, it was absolutely stunning.

A few tweaks from the robot and the map had shown three planets that glowed in an orange like color.

“These are the three planets that possess the remaining orbs.”

Kyungsoo stared at the map with wide wondrous eyes, a soft gasp emitting from his lips as it danced on cheeks. He knew that there was nothing, but the way the map extended and engulfed the two males made Kyungsoo feel like there were actual particles roaming his face. It made his heart swell with wonder, a feeling that was full and wholesome.

Kai had been surprised by the map himself, but not nearly as much as Kyungsoo. This map was very similar to the kind his people could produce. He wondered if the technology of his people had been influenced by this ancient civilization. But as he looked down at the pale human, his heart had constricted, and his cheeks grew to a red color.

Kyungsoo had looked up at the alien beside him, as he noticed his presence looking down at him. But what he saw was a look of guilt as the alien averted his gaze. Whether Kai was truly sporting a guilty facial expression was the real question to be asking, but it still seemed to hurt nonetheless. And it was in that moment that Kyungsoo decided he would come to terms with how he felt. His heart literally hurt and stomach felt deflated when Kai looked away with an expression that seemed so standoffish. It was in that moment that Kyungsoo realized that the feelings he was starting to harbor for the alien were more intense than he wanted.

The robot proceeded to zoom in on the planets and state their names in its weird robotic language and described each world. One planet read with three power signatures, another with two and the last with one. There were too many to gather in such a short amount of time, but Kyungsoo thought it might be possible for them to get them all with Kai’s device.

“If you wish to stop the darkness. You must find these. They were thrown around the universe, hidden and to never be used until the moment the darkness would consume all. But it seems that over the years they have been found and moved… Collect them and bring them back.”

“Why do you trust us?” Kyungsoo suddenly asked, he was weary of this robot.

“I am programed to trust in the descendants of Marian. Blood of the Marian runs deep in this life form. You are different, but still descendant.”

“My great ancestor was Taikai. He conquered most of the known alliances in the Hedrat quadrant.”

“Taikai. Descendant of Thel. Thel was a friend to our masters. Thel helped create our system and programed the weapon.”

“I have no idea of what any of this means.” Kyungsoo quickly mumbled.

“Marian are the ancient people before mine. They were a nomadic people who were forced out of their homes until they settled on Eleto. They were fair and one of the first races created in the universe. They have all perished and evolved into what my people are today. My great ancestor was one of those people and it turns out my bloodline goes back even further. These were the people who called upon Xanin to gift them with power to protect themselves on Eleto, they were weak and susceptible to other dominating powers.”

Kyungsoo brought his hands up to his head and desperately wanted to pull at the hair, but completely forgot that it had been shaved clean, just fuzz remained. Still, he ran his hands through his hair at the fact there was so much history to the universe and it seemed like Kai had a very important part to play, well, at least his ancestors did.

“What the fuck am I even doing here.” He mumbled in a humorous deprecating way.

“Indeed.” The robot turned to Kyungsoo. “Your makeup is… Inadequate. You would suit better as a pet than a companion.”

Kyungsoo’s draw dropped. “Excuse me? Fuck you, you piece—” Kai quickly found his place beside Kyungsoo and covered his mouth with his large hand, shielding the small male away from the robot.

“My apologies.”

“I cannot be offended.”

Kai paused for a moment, thinking about the ridiculousness of the situation before proceeding. “Such customs do not exist in most places anymore. Kyungsoo is my companion, from here and henceforth.”

Kyungsoo seemed to calm down suddenly at Kai’s words, trying to listen rather than fight the arm that held him back.

The robot paused. “Noted. Companion Kyungsoo. Then, I urge you—”

A loud scream had emitted from the hall. A scream followed by a hoard of hundreds of other squeals and nasty vile gurgles.

The three were distracted by the noise and all turned to the open doorway. Immediate sounds of the beams of light had gone off, the robots were fiercely warding off the vile creatures.

“Go, now. When you return with the orbs, this place shall be cleared. Hurry, and leave. Do not return until you have all eight.”

Kai had released Kyungsoo’s face and let his arm circle his shoulders as he began to lock in coordinates on his wrist. All three coordinates of the planets had been placed and they were ready to take off. Kyungsoo held tightly onto Kai and waited for the uneasy shifting to upset his stomach.

֍ ҉ ֎

The first planet they traveled to was the planet with three orbs. Yutr’k, as named by the natives and best translated to English. It was a small, mostly jungle, planet that had been ruled by one race of humanoid like creatures. They were barbaric and aboriginal, deifying one supreme being that possessed four eyes on its head and had skin blue like seafoam. It wore a magnificent hat, a crown really, that supported three of the orbs. In the center and highest above the two was a completely black orb, the one bottom left was yellow, and the bottom right seemed to be a deeper blue than the one that was in Kyungsoo’s pocket. They had known this because they had been captured the moment they stepped on the planet. They were not able to move more than ten steps before they had felt a sharp pain in their necks and had fallen asleep. It took Kai significantly more darts to tranquilize him, but it had done the trick.  

It was night time when they woke up and they were caged up, feet tied, but not their hands. The cages were made of the dense bones of some creature on their planet and heavily reinforced. There was no escaping, at the time being. What was most unpleasant about the whole situation was that there had been a great green fire in the center of the tribe, and the great being that possessed the crown of orbs had been watching over his subjects with a heinous sort of smirk. Kai had been picking out parts of their language to interpret and had found something along the lines of “sacrifice” and “to the great one”. He decided not to tell Kyungsoo, especially since he was already a little on the panic side, but he figured Kyungsoo was smart enough to puzzle together what was going to happen to them.

Two of the indigenous creatures in their dark purple skin tones, dressed in cloth around their stomachs, yet completely pantless had walked up to the cage with bowls of food. They had sported no genitalia, yet what Kyungsoo assumed were females had sported breasts in the same spot humans would. Their bone structure was disheartening as their back formed sharp curves on their shoulder blades and their legs were similar to an amphibian. They had no hair and wore leaves or strands of grass as crowns, but their eyes had been black with small white circles in the center. Most them sported this kind of look, but skin tone and body shape varied. They were most interesting, yet terrifying if they opened their mouth to show two sets of sharp teeth. However, the two placed bowls of a mushy and putrid green looking soup into their cage and walked away with snorting snarls of words.

Kyungsoo had picked up a bowl and sniffed it, it had an odd aroma of chocolate, but chocolate if it were stale.

“Do _not_ eat it. We don’t know what could happen.”

“Kai, I’m literally starving. I don’t think I’ve eaten in a day, I really think I should eat this.”

Kai admitted that he was quite hungry himself, but it was dangerous to eat something foreign. Especially from creatures that seemed hostile.

Suddenly, another pair of the humanoid like creatures walked up to them holding what looked like spears, pointed rocks at the tips. They had made a series of grunting noises and threatened them by shoving their spears into the cage, cutting the ties at the ends of their feet off. Kyungsoo had fallen backwards to not get touched by the spear, while Kai had responded with a kick of his foot and broke the spearhead as he slammed his foot down. The other spearman responded with a shout and stabbed Kai right in his side before he could do anything. Kai yelped and fell as the spearman pushed him to the ground.

“Ohhh kay!” Kyungsoo screamed as he ripped the spear out of Jongin’s side and shielded him away from the raging spearman. “That’s enough of that!” He had ended on top of the male, straddling him in a position so that his back faced the attackers. “You want this? Is this what you want?” Kyungsoo had grabbed a bowl beside them and began to sip it, assuming that the spearmen were trying to force them to eat the bowls of food. It had tasted exactly how it smelled, like stale chocolate—not very pleasant and the texture of the lumpy substance was like slimy scrambled eggs. He gagged for a second but proceeded to swallow. This seemed to calm everyone down, even the people who had been dancing by the fire and noticed the scuffle. They calmed down further when Kyungsoo held the bowl up to Kai’s mouth.

“Just drink it, it’ll probably save your life.” He whispered and watched as Kai slowly let his plump lips intake the substance. It was a quick sip, but it was enough to calm everyone down and retract their spears.

Kyungsoo let his tongue taste the substance further, for some reason he had a weird desire to take more and continued to drink his bowl for another couple sips. It was another three more sips before his body decided to tell him to stop. While he had sipped his bowl, Kai had reached over and continued to down his own. When Kyungsoo put his bowl down in his lap and wiped his mouth clean, he had been amazed watching as Kai’s Adam’s apple bobbed and a little of the substance leaked out of the side of his mouth.

“Hungry?” Kyungsoo asked with a chuckle, Kai just breathed out and stared at the male on top of him. “How’s your side? Did you heal it yet?”

Kai put his bowl down and said not a word as he placed a hand on his side. His face contorted slightly with the pain as his hand glowed beneath his clothes.

“Good.” Kyungsoo said with a barely audible voice. It seemed to slur into a muffled sound. But as he did so, his body began to feel immensely warm, his cheeks growing bright with the heat. It was a weird sensation, but it felt like a haze had been quickly washing over him. Like it was his first time taking soju shots all over again, and that immediate sleepy feeling in his eyes was taking over.

“You finish?” Kai said in a weird tone. It was hard to explain other than that it was just weird, Kyungsoo had never heard it before. Especially with the fact that he had not used proper English.

Kyungsoo shook his head, “No, I can’t. I guess I’m full. My body is like just telling me no. Like I’m about to have too much alcohol.”

Without another word Kai took the bowl in Kyungsoo’s hand and began to down it as well. The feeling consuming Kyungsoo made him giggle. But as soon as Kai raised his head to finish every last bit of the soup-like substance, his chest began to pound hard and his stomach flopped. Something south in his foreign pants began to twitch, he had been feeling odd for a while, but he hadn’t even realized that it was a sexual odd. Watching Kai’s Adam’s apple bob up and down seemed so inviting and delicious that Kyungsoo nearly moved closer into the male to create some sort of contact. But as Kai brought the bowl down and let it hit the ground, their eyes locked and something so animalistic broke away inside of him. The shock of how sexually interested he had just become to Kai was almost scary, making him try and back away but finding that he had no strength in his legs.

“No.. Oh nonononononononono.” Kyungsoo began to panic, he could see how his pants began to show the formation of his dick.

Kai looked down and noticed it on Kyungsoo.

“I’m so sorry, I can’t get up. Like it’s physically impossible for me to get up and I literally have no control over this. Oh my god, I promissee.” Kai had shifted Kyungsoo up, allowing a more comfortable seat for him and placing his hands on the male’s hips. It was what caused Kyungsoo to moan at the end of his sentence. “No, oh please no. This is so awkward.”

Behind Kyungsoo had been a crowd of the indigenous people, they were starting to surround the cage and shouting all sorts of weird noises at them.

Kai’s face tilted and contorted as he tried to discern what they were saying. It took a moment as Kyungsoo began to pant as he sat there, his penis was growing in more pain with the lack of friction in such a short amount of time and it was a very annoying situation.

“I think they’re yelling at you to put your penis in me.” Kai said.

“What?!” Kyungsoo snapped up.

Kai was silent as he listened to the words of the creatures again.

“They think I am female and want you to impregnate me.” Kai frowned. “But I cannot bear a child… Why do they want a child?” Kai began to open and close his eyes, it seemed as if he was having a tough time focusing himself. He had shifted again and rubbed his hands on his eyes, but as he did so the movement caused the fabric on Kyungsoo’s pants to slide over his dick. A moan was elicited from his mouth and he quickly covered his mouth.

The two stared at one another, for some reason, Kai’s chest had started to heave as he stared into Kyungsoo’s eyes. At the same time, Kyungsoo could have sworn the male’s eyes had glowed brighter in its amber color.

When nothing had happened between them, a shot of pain ran through Kyungsoo’s groin again. This time he groaned and shut his eyes tight and covered his crotch with both hands.

“Pain.” Kai had said as he watched Kyungsoo closely.

“It hurts…” He looked up with pleading eyes.

Kai’s mouth had been parted slightly, a desire to ravish his lips had burned through Kyungsoo’s being. But as Kyungsoo stared at the male’s sacred lips he had missed how Kai had moved his arms to wrap around his waist and pulled the male taught against his stomach. Kyungsoo was now up on his knees, looking down into the perfect golden eyes of elf. His hands had been settled on the broad shoulders of the male as they breathed heavily into one another’s faces. Kyungsoo loved every second of the way he smelled, his sweet aroma littering his nostrils with the inexplicable scent of his breath.

“—soo,” Kai seemed to barely say the male’s name.

Kyungsoo brought his hands up to cup the elf’s face, stroking messy strands of the stark white hair. Oh how he wanted to kiss Kai’s lips in that moment.

“My body.. What’s happening..” Kai mumbled.

“The soup…” Kyungsoo mumbled back, despite how loud everyone had been cheering around them, they could still hear one another.

Kyungsoo leaned in to Kai, slowly trying to attach his lips and see if Kai would return the action. Instead, Kai had pulled the petite body down, forcing Kyungsoo to sit directly on his own groin. A string of air left Kyungsoo’s mouth as his own cock delved in the action it had been receiving. But what shocked him more was feeling something against his rear once contact was made.

In a quick moment, Kai began to untie the string that held Kyungsoo’s shirt closed, opened it and let its length fall onto his stomach. In another quick and swift movement, he had pulled Kyungsoo’s pants down enough to pull out the throbbing cock, however, Kyungsoo’s shirt made it impossible for anyone to see anything.

Kyungsoo threw his head back as soon as Kai began to stroke him.

This had officially been the weirdest thing Kyungsoo had ever done in his life.

Public masturbation and he couldn’t even feel bad about it.

Kyungsoo had long since wrapped his arms around Kai’s neck and pressed their foreheads together. Kyungsoo simply stared at what was happening with his crotch but for some reason Kai stared directly into Kyungsoo’s face, watching every last facial expression he made.

“I’m so sorry, I should have cum by now.” Kyungsoo said breathily.

“No. I’m sorry for what I’m about to do. This won’t stop unless we get it out of our bodies.”

“Wha—?” Kyungsoo asked as Kai slipped his cock back into his pants and covered his stomach again. Within a movement unseen by most, Kai had pulled out a knife and slit his own left arm across the soft skin of his inner elbow. Blood immediately began to gush. In another second he had done the same to Kyungsoo, but on his neck. More specifically, the jugular. Kyungsoo had never bore an expression more confused and more hurt than that. His hands quickly found way to stop the bleeding and fell backwards once feeling started to find way to his legs again.

An uproar sounded through the crowds surrounding the cage. Kai stood to his feet and slammed his hand into the ground; a powerful surge of light had washed out in waves and made the people fly back, stunning them for a temporary stasis.

Kai had quickly kneeled to take hold of Kyungsoo’s body in his arms, holding his head up and pressing his hand to the male’s neck with immense force. He shut his eyes tight and recited a few words in his native tongue, his hand glowing bright against the stark red that poured from Kyungsoo’s neck.

Kyungsoo stared up at the elf, his head barely able to process anything as the amount of blood he was losing was far greater than it should have been. But he couldn’t help but notice the tears that seemed to stream down Kai’s eyes as he spoke the healing words of his people.

“It’s okay.” Kai said softly as he rested Kyungsoo’s head back down.

Kyungsoo knew he would be okay, he put his hand to his neck and found that there was no longer a cut, just an inordinate amount of blood. He felt sleepy, so terribly weak now that he had been resting on the ground. But even as he laid there, barely coherent, a roar so loud and so fierce had sounded in the distance. The hoarded aliens all seemed to shriek and cower in fear, all huddling against one another and slowly backing away.

Most of them moved to their leader and bowed before it, the four eyed one. They spoke in quick rushed voices, as if begging for him to save them from whatever had just made the noise.

Kai took that as his opportunity and disappeared in a flash of luminescent smoke, Kyungsoo simply laid on the ground and watched as he reappeared in front of the four eyed demon alien and lodged a small knife in between its eyes. The creature screeched something awful. In that moment Kyungsoo wondered just how many knifes the elf had hidden, but mostly, he watched as the alien fell from its high chair and the crown broke to pieces. The orbs disbursing on the ground.

Not a moment later did Kai appear back in the cage that had been abandoned by all the aliens; most of which had run off into the forest. Whatever it was that scared them and made such a horrible sound, was not enough to make Kai stick around and quickly teleported to the next planet with the orbs in hand.

֍ ҉ ֎

Silence filled the two.

They had teleported to the second planet that held two power signatures of the orbs.

They had found shelter is a cave by a mountainside they had traveled next to. Kyungsoo had slept for much of the day, as did Kai. What he did not know though, was that Kai had slept right against him. Warming his cold body and keeping a protective arm over him.

But as they were now awake and settled across the cave from another, they chose silence. Not even knowing where to start.

“I think I want to go home—”

“I must apologize for—”

They spoke at the same time.

“You first.” Kai offered even though he had heard what the male said.

“I think.. I should go home.”

Another silence impregnated the cave.

“I uh… didn’t really get to choose by the end of our ‘exploration’ at that place.. And I don’t know if I can actually go on..”

“Okay.” Kai said finally after some time.

“ _O-Okay_? That’s it? That’s all you have to say.”

“I slit your throat when all I needed to do was cut your wrists. I put you the closest to danger you have ever been…” Kai quieted and looked down at his lap. His white hair messy and frizzy as it hung over, flecks of red staining his white suit and hand.

“Kai..?” Something felt odd. Kai’s response was very weird.

Suddenly Kyungsoo thought he had seen two specs of flickered light drop onto the ground in between his legs. He called out to the elf again, this time more worried than the last.

“Kai, what’s the matter?” The alarm was rather apparent in Kyungsoo’s voice.

“I saw my brother…” Kai finally whispered. “I held your head and he was there…”

Kyungsoo tilted his head in confusion, “Wh-What?” He said breathlessly.

Kai raised his head and stared Kyungsoo down, his eyes red and fighting desperately to hold back tears, even as they streamed down his beautiful, full, and bronze cheeks. Kyungsoo got up after realizing the situation and walked over to the male to kneel beside him and wrap his arms around him; forcing the white head of hair to nuzzle into his bosom. Kai pressed his head against Kyungsoo’s chest and gripped it firmly with one hand. He seemed to cry harder like that.

Kyungsoo stroked the elf’s hair ever so gently, whispering soft words to ease the crying male.

“Please don’t leave me.” Kai muttered into Kyungsoo’s chest. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.” His voice was so soft, it was so scared of the answers that would come out of Kyungsoo’s mouth.

“I’m right here, I’m not going anywhere.” Kyungsoo said on instinct. It’s rare to find a person good at consoling another while crying, Kyungsoo was definitely not one of those people. But the way Kai was literally sobbing into his chest made him feel all kinds of disconcerting things. Made him think that Kai had more traits in common to humans than the ‘never showing emotion’ thing. He had no idea Kai had the ability to cry or show much in emotion, so really sitting down to think about Kai and all that he’s been through began to hurt. Whether Kai would talk about it or not did not hide the fact that he had been exiled from his own home. To be exiled from a village is one thing, but to be exiled from an entire planet is another. A brother who he adored was gone, and he killed his ex’s father who was out to kill him. Now he’s on a mission to save the universe. He had been alone for such a long time, it was no wonder Kai liked to follow him around the house when they were still on Earth. If that doesn’t scream even a slight bit of stress, then Kyungsoo did not know what did. There’s only so much a person can hold until they break. Kai was now at breaking point.

“I was stupid, I was so terribly wrong. I don’t know why I did that to you. I’m so sorry.” The elf just mumbled endless apologies as he cried, a hiccup in his voice here and there. It was kind of endearing to see that he had a side so human to him, but the awkward sense of sympathy played a larger role.

“Kai, it’s okay.” Kyungsoo said firmly when the elf did not stop and held his face in his hands once more. “I’m not dead, am I? I mean I was in a weird place too, never in a fuckin’ million years would I let _anyone_ jerk me off in public... But you saved me didn’t you? Yeah that was really fucking terrifying, but I’m still here aren’t I? I know it must have reminded you of your brother, but you were able to save me. Granted, you were the one that could have killed me, but you saved me. Understand?”

Kai’s own glorious golden eyes frantically looked between the two dark chocolate eyes before his, he felt small and so pathetic in that moment. But he nodded eventually, accepting that Kyungsoo was serious about what he was saying.

“Why did you cut my throat anyways?” Kyungsoo asked once he got the answer he needed.

“Your jugular bleeds the fastest. I had only a small frame of time and needed to get the stimulant out of our systems. I was afraid you might die of a heart attack before something...happened.”

Kyungsoo wiped the elf’s tears with his thumbs still holding him gently and gazing tenderly into his eyes.

“Alright.. I’ll take your word for it.” Kyungsoo shrugged, not wanting to delve any deeper than he had to in the subject. He definitely had a couple unspoken things on his mind.

Kai hung his head as he placed a hand on one of Kyungsoo’s as it slipped through his hair and earrings. “I will take you home. And make sure your safe before I leave.”

Kyungsoo blinked for a moment, completely forgetting that he wanted to go home for a second.

“Ah, yeah.. Well… I mean..” He thought quickly and thoroughly before he was about to make a mistake with the new decision. “I said this before anyways, it’s not like I really have a place to go back to. And as much as I would rather be home watching my favorite movie, I think there’s something more important to be done here.”

Kai lifted his head once again with gusto, his red eyes searching his for the affirmation he needed.

“You’ll stay?” He whispered?

“Yeah. I might as well.. Just, don’t slit my throat ever again. I know you can heal me and save me, but just don’t do it.”

Kai flung his arms out and hugged the male close to him, their chests touching and Kyungsoo was sure he could feel the elf’s heartbeat.

“I promise.” He whispered into Kyungsoo’s ear.

Kyungsoo felt his cheeks flare up and wrapped his arms back around Kai. Oh the things this alien did to his heart.

“Good.” He said to distract his thoughts. “As payment, when this is done, I’m making you sit through all eleven and a half hours of my favorite movie series. Besides, you jerked me off before you bought me dinner. So now I’m stuck with you until you make up for it.” Kyungsoo chuckled to himself.

Kai released the male and stared him down again, “I’m not sure I know what that means..”

“Uh…” Kyungsoo droned on. “You know what never mind. It’s fine.”

“Did you mean when I pulled on your penis?”

“Okay, wow. Yup, that’s what I was talking about.” Kyungsoo’s cheeks had flared to mortification this time.

Kai had separated himself from Kyungsoo bowed his head to the ground in a child’s pose. “Please, forgive my heinous actions. An Allve does not truly feel sexual activity until after their soul has mated with another. It has been made like this through evolution for my people due to our long years of life, our population must level out as we live prolonged periods of time. I apologize for succumbing to those emotions and not asking for your permission.”

“Oh my god, please get up.” Kyungsoo shoved the male by his shoulder to get him up. “It’s not like I wasn’t feeling anything either. Like, clearly I liked it and would have told you to stop if I didn’t!” He muttered as he tried to sit the male up.

“You would have?”

“Yes! I’m not a complete dipshit.” He would leave out the part that something about the situation turned him on more than he already had been. Or maybe it was just the food that made him feel that way.

“You should know, that even though my thoughts were impure of Allve culture, I did not have intentions of pro-creating with you… Those creatures were going to watch us while we became intimate and were going to wait for me to birth a child to sacrifice to their god.”

Kyungsoo looked down and his eyes widened, “Holy fuck… They must not get a lot of exposure besides themselves because that’s just not how you or I work.”

“They would have found out one way or another and probably have killed us afterwards.”

Kyungsoo’s face ran pale and his body went cold. “Well, at least we got what we needed.”

“Yes… And we should continue to move if we want to ever find the rest.” Kai wiped his nose quickly. “We cannot delay any longer, civilizations parish every second now.”

“...Right.” The weight of that sentence suddenly felt heavier than he had previously thought. “Right.” He said more for himself.

Kai had stood to his feet and offered a hand to Kyungsoo, a hand covered in dried blood. Kyungsoo took the hand and had been pulled up with little force.

“Let’s do this.”

“Together.”

֍ ҉ ֎

The planet was large, probably larger than Earth, if not the same in size. Yet it was very close to Krakatos. It was possible to see the planet at night, a star that twinkled large in the sky. They had landed in a place of the planet that was heavy in plateaus, grasslands and mountains. It was a beautiful landscape of green, sparse trees that looked like tall pines and creatures that looked similar to sheep with their fluffy coats but six legs and double iris eyes. It was windy and mostly on the chilly side, like a mid-autumn back on Earth.

As they traveled the side of a mountain, a house had appeared before them. Smoke traveled from a chimney and they decided it was in their best interest to see if they could get hospitality. They were in desperate need of a washing and food. And that was exactly what they received. It was a family of disturbing looking creatures. They walked on two legs like Kyungsoo and Kai but they had diamond iris’s and gray leathery skin with tails and extra fingers. It was both fascinating yet frightening as Kai quickly learned their language and Kyungsoo could sort of say their names. It was a family of four, a husband and wife and their two children. One who was Kyungsoo’s age and the another just a few years younger. He was the tallest, taller than his parents and sported a head of bright purple hair. He and Kyungsoo got along well despite the heavy barrier in language. They were a truly good and kind family and gave them most of the little things they had to offer.

At a point that the family had been offering them baths, Kyungsoo and Chan (as he had nicknamed his new-found friend) had been scanning through what Kyungsoo assumed was a special kind of book. It was a metal tablet that projected a hologram and showed a series of letters and sentences. Chan enjoyed it, it seemed like it was the only electronic kind of things in the house and it made Kyungsoo wonder why that was. Then with luck of scanning the room, on the shelf of a wall unit, there Kyungsoo had seen a large red orb on top of three sticks that posed as a holding place. Kyungsoo couldn’t help but notice how a like the orb looked to the ones they had been traveling with. When Kai was finally around, Kyungsoo asked him about the jewel in the living room to which Kai furiously asked if they could have. The parents seemed distraught over the fact that Kai had so many of the orbs; they knew of what weapon laid on Krakatos. Their family was entrusted with protecting this gem eons ago. It was why they chose such a secluded life away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Despite their discontent, they willingly gave it to the two males and sent them on their way once they had been refreshed, fed and had information about the next one. It was on the other side of the mountain, hidden in an old mining shaft.

It was a daunting task seeming that the mine had been closed for centuries and was prone to collapsing. But nevertheless, Kyungsoo had spotted the purple orb that had been buried underneath a pile of darkly colored ores. Its power was what had drawn him to it, otherwise he would have completely missed it. As soon as he picked it up, a strength so invigorating had gone rampant through his veins, he felt like he could do anything. More specifically, he felt like he could run up the side of the mountain and reach the top within five-minutes. But of course, he did not, much to the convincing of Kai. Their pile was growing of the orbs and so were their emotions. It felt like they were going through stages of menopause with the addition of each one, they all possessed their own form of emotion and it was tiring task to have to carry them all around. They would switch off, the other holding it while the other went free. But in the midst of switching the bag off, Kyungsoo had accidentally leaned too heavily on a wooden beam that supported the cave. A chain reaction of terror hit inside hard with the way the walls began to shake and crumble under the weight above.

There was not nearly enough time to run out, so as Kai dropped the bag, thinking Kyungsoo had grabbed it, he turned to his wrist to input the next location. Kyungsoo had of course missed the bag, a rock from the ceiling had dropped on his hand and caused the bag to fall and drop a few of the orbs.

“Grab onto me!” Kai yelled as he was ready to press the button, but only realized too late that Kyungsoo had run off trying to grab the yellow taurn that had rolled too far away.

“Gotch’ya.” He said breathlessly once a rock had fallen and stopped the orb from moving any further. When he stood up to look for Kai, he was met with the large elf charging for him, his wrist glowing and ready for transportation.

They collided with a large thud, Kai’s arms wrapped enough around the male for Kyungsoo to try his hardest to grab onto. But the transportation was not easy. The momentum of Kai ramming into the human was enough to keep them shaking while they transported to the last world, it was beyond difficult to explain but for some reason Kyungsoo could hardly get a grip on the elf. By the time the traveling came to an end, Kyungsoo had fallen face first, a few feet off the ground, into a petrifyingly cold layer of soft snow.  

Violent wind surrounded everything else as Kyungsoo lifted his head, snow blowing into his eyes and layering the hairs that poked out from his eyebrows and head. He squinted with the biting cold, now drawing tears from his eyes. Everything was gray, no sun had shined, just an overcast of clouds that seemed to take joy in covering Kyungsoo in its blizzard weather. The cold seeped into his thin clothes, making him stand quickly and grab the bag of orbs he had dropped.

“Kai?” He called out, his voice not nearly as loud as he had hopped, it seemed like it wanted to stay hidden. Kyungsoo turned in every direction, nothing but a landscape of snow and white speckled horizon lay beyond what his eyes could see. “Kai?!” He yelled this time, but he could hear as the wind ate his voice up. He couldn’t even hear his own footsteps in the snow because the wind had been so loud on his face.

He trudged through the heavy layers of snow to the best of his ability. His legs quickly grew sluggish as his clothes melted the snow then quickly froze it back into place. He grew more and more tired the colder he got, had anyone seen the actual temperature of the place they would know that a human could not last nearly as long as Kyungsoo did without Xanin’s gift. But of course, even Kyungsoo could last only fifteen minutes before his body failed him and he fell to his knees. His eyes began to blur but what he couldn’t help but notice was the blinding red light that surrounded him. He looked up to find a massive ship in the sky, sinking down with each second that he processed. It was dark in comparison to the white landscape, dark reds and blacks colored it heavily, or maybe Kyungsoo thought it was that because of the red light that beamed into his eyes. It did not matter though, for his eyes shut tight and he fell face first into the snow.

He had accepted his fate. He would die there with the orbs in his hands and Kai would probably never find him. It was unfortunate, but he had to accept that there was nothing else he could do.

֍ ҉ ֎

Kyungsoo woke with a jolt, his body warm—significantly warmer than it had been before falling asleep. Though he was sure he was dead, he saw that there had been a fire in front of him that lit up what looked like walls of a rock formation. He was covered in a thick fur blanket and he could hear the wind to his left, when he looked he noticed that there was an opening to the blizzard outside. He had been situated into another cave. Something gurgled in an uncomfortable manor in front of him, kind of like the noise a camel makes. There he had seen a large creature with slim legs and a long neck like a llama. It was puffy in a curly wool-like fur with antlers that poked out the sides. It had been chewing on something, its mouth grazing back and forth to chew the grass substance.

Something then proceeded to clear its throat as Kyungsoo slowly sat up in his spot on the ground. He whipped his head to the person and found something not what he had been expecting. A person, round and thick in a heavy coat, sporting circular goggles, a round nose and thick mustache. Everything else of its face was covered by a scarf.

“Who are you?” Kyungsoo quickly asked as he scuttled back into himself, using the blanket to cover him.

“Ink.” Came the gruff voice of the person.

“Ink?”

“Yes, Ink.”

“O-Okay, where am I?”

“In my home.”

Kyungsoo furrowed his brows and took a quick survey of the area behind the stranger. It was indeed a home, there was something that looked like a bed, wall-units built in the rock and counters that looked filled with food.

“Okay, but how did I get here?”

“I saved you. You were dying out in the cold, so I picked you up before that nasty Allve ship could get you.”

“A-Allve? I didn’t imagine that?”

“Nope, you were coherent enough for that probably. Though, I do find your circumstances very curious. The fact you seem to have a very angry Allve ship after you and a bag of a curious gems. Very curious indeed.”

Kyungsoo quickly panicked and looked around for the bag of orbs, when he had spotted it by his feet he picked it up and immediately started to search it.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find all them there. I have no business with you or what you have in there.” Kyungsoo physically relaxed once all were accounted for. “Though, one must wonder, what you are doing?”

“I mean, I was never told to keep it a secret so I’m assuming its fine if I tell you. But have you seen my friend? Tall, white hair and is also an Allve?”

“I regret to inform you that I have not.”

Kyungsoo slumped his shoulders. He could only wonder where Kai was, if he was stuck out in the blizzard or if they had accidentally traveled to different worlds.

“By the looks of your bag, you could use another gem there.”

“Yes…” Kyungsoo started cautiously. “How did you know?”

“Because I know the head city of this earth possesses one.”

“Really?! Can you help me get it? I need the last one!”

“As tempting as that sounds, I’ll need to know why first. Of course, taking the gem away may very well destroy the city as we know. It powers all of the capital.”

“Oh.. Fuck..” Kyungsoo’s face fell, this was a tough pickle. “Well, I’m sure you’ve heard of it, Carn?”

“Carn?” The man snorted. “Carn is a fairytale. But most know it.”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s real or not. I’ve never seen it myself, but I have been on a quest for some time now trying to retrieve these orbs and put an end to it. It turns out that Carn has been consuming everything in its path at a very fast pace and will end all universes ever known… Xanin, or whatever, sent my friend and I out to stop Carn—”

“Xanin? Oh I’ve heard of that fellow. He’s responsible for this planet’s chaos. I know that name rather well.” Ink seemed to brood.

“Really?” Kyungsoo questioned with a raised brow. Xanin was a very curious being. He seemed to be at the root of most unexplainable phenomenon’s.

“Ohh yes. But again, those are just fairy tales we grow up with.”

“Huh… Well.. Thank you for saving me. But I really need that last orb, is there anyway.. You could get me there?”

“Of course there is. I didn’t live forty years there for nothing.”

“So then you’ll take me?” Kyungsoo piqued.

“No.”

“W-Why not?” Kyungsoo seemed at a loss.

“‘Cause that’s not something you can just simply do. Don’t you have a friend you need to look for first?”

“I do! I mean, yes, I do… But I don’t even know where to start… I don’t even know if he’s on the same planet..”

“That is quite the predicament.”

“And if he is… Oh god… I hope he’s not frozen to death.. I have to go find him…” Kyungsoo shot up, and let the blanket fall, an immediate blast of cold air hit him.

“Oh no you don’t. It’s way too cold for you to go anywhere dressed like that. And he’s an Allve. I’m sure he’s managing just fine.”

Kyungsoo eventually sat back down, his eyes fixed on the fire before him. He gathered the blanket around his shoulders again and kept looking at the fire, he truly did not know what to do. He hated how weak he was and how useless and insignificant it meant to be human. Kai was probably out there suffering and what could he do to help? The human hunched over and let the palm of his hands rest on his eyes.

In fact, Kyungsoo had been so stressed by his thoughts that he literally stayed there for a solid ten minutes. Mulling through everything, piece by piece and trying to understand the nature of how and why everything was happening the way it was happening.

“I think your friend’s here.” Ink had said to break the silence.

Kyungsoo raised his head and looked at the alien before him, tilting his head in confusion. Only the glare of the alien’s goggles signaled him enough to look behind himself. Kyungsoo turned over his shoulder and there, down the cave by the opening, he had seen a tall white figure with stark dark skin contrasting to everything else. He had a hand on the wall of the cave and was hunched over, he seemed ready to succumb to the cold. Kyungsoo shot out of his seat before Kai could do anything more and crashed into him with a more than deserved warm hug. He had wrapped his blanket around the male and buried his face into the elf’s chest. Kai was stunned by the action but eventually returned the affection with frozen hands by wrapping his hand around the small human and holding him close. He rested his head on top of the human’s and unbeknownst to Kyungsoo had taken a whiff of the scent that radiated from there; the wind outside was just a tad too loud for anyone to hear.

“How did you get here?” Kyungsoo asked as he brought his head up, still wrapped in each other’s arms.

“You seem to forget what I am in comparison to you.” He smiled bright with nearly purple lips. This hurt Kyungsoo and he quickly let go to drag him toward the fire. “I’m sorry for our separation. I didn’t mean for it to happen, I—”

“It’s fine, just sit down and warm up.” Kyungsoo said as he made the elf sit and wrapped his blanket around him.

Kai allowed himself to be dotted on and watched Kyungsoo with a gentle gaze.

“I sure haven’t seen something like that in a while.” Ink said in gruff voice as he stood to get another warm blanket for Kyungsoo.

“What?” Kyungsoo asked as he sat beside the elf, Kai seemed to just stare the stranger down with a hard gaze now.

“Well, I haven’t seen interactions between anything of much lately. So, don’t mind me,” He waved them off. “You must be the Allve.” He threw a smaller blanket around Kyungsoo’s shoulders and waddled his way back to his seat across the fire.

“Moka’inim Akimai’ith.”

“Oh, the banished Prince of Eleto. I am honored.” He bowed his head slightly. “I hear you’re on a quest then?”

“Yes. The end of the universe is upon us and I would see it stopped.”

“Well.. Hearing that coming from you is more unnerving than I thought.” Ink chuckled. “You can call me Ink.”

“Greetings Ink, how do you know English? You are Rakuthian.”

“Translator.” He pulled a device from under his scarf and presented a small metal thing before putting it back. “So, you need the orb.” Ink leaned in and seemed to be finally interested in the topic at hand.

What their conversation entailed had been plans of infiltration of The City and how Ink despised the people of The City. He had once worked as a businessman in one of the larger buildings of corporation, but once he had seen the true nature of the conglomerates he had done his own things to take them down. He had been successful too, exposing their nasty methods of monopoly and the ill use of the power that surged the city. He had been fired from his job and exiled from the main city to the Wastes, which consumed most of the planet. A frozen tundra of ice and snow with almost a never-ending blizzard. They often exiled people knowing they could never survive, but what they did not know was that Ink had actually been born and bred in the Wastes. He was from one of the many indigenous clans that lived in the Wastes, but he was exiled from his own home when he made the decision to part with them and move to The City. The peoples of the Wastes and The City did not get along, in fact they often warred with each other over their differences. So, welcome to neither part of the world, he lived in solitary with his pet. But now that a chance to ruin The City was raised, he was willing to participate.

But the theft of The City’s power did not go as planned. The orb had been stolen when they had arrived at the main power core, everything had been emptied of light and electricity and it was a stalemate that baffled all.

What they did not expect was the Allve ship to appear before them at the top of the main power building, which towered over the vast white city, though snow had not touched the city in the slightest. They had teleported to the top to see what had become of city but as they waited, a great ship of black and red appeared. Ink yelled at the two to leave immediately, but it had been too late. Kai had gone to gather their hands together and teleport when a sudden force had ripped them apart. It was great and completely invisible as it wrapped itself around Kai’s torso and slammed him into the ground of The City. Kyungsoo was sure that no one could survive that kind of pressure, not even a person as superior as Kai.

Kyungsoo felt all hope drain from his face, but as Ink yelled for him to turn around and run, Kyungsoo was confronted with a tall black figure. It oozed in black, the substance dripping from every portion of the body and disappearing into nothingness. Eyes were stark white, endless with no pupil to define and illuminated as if it had been the only source of life in such a black abyss. It was vile and quite honestly, terrifying how it loomed over Kyungsoo.

“ _Threkar rath men ‘olan._ ” Such slithering words dripped from its mouth before wrapping a dark tentacle around Kyungsoo’s waist.

Not long after did the human fall asleep, a spell having been cast on him into slumber.

֍ ҉ ֎

Kyungsoo woke with an ache straining on his stomach and legs. He felt heavy, like an overbearing bout of pressure had been weighing his head down. It felt lethargic and as if his lungs could hardly take in any air—it was suffocating, and he hated it.

“Kai?” His voice called out in the dark room, not even a shred of light had peaked out.

“I’m here..” His voice was small and across the way, this made Kyungsoo jump to his feet despite the pain and run to Kai’s side.

“Where are you?” He asked in a panic, it really was hard to see.

“Here…” His voice was even smaller, but it was closer now, just off to the side and Kyungsoo quickly kneeled beside him.

“How are you?” Had been the only words he could think of, though he really wanted to lift him and hold him in his arms.

“I’ve been better.” His voice was grumbly, as if just waking up, but Kai almost next to never had a fault in his voice in the morning.

“Do you hurt anywhere?”

“Everywhere.”

Kyungsoo nearly whimpered and reached out his hand to place on the male’s head.

“Are you alright?” Kai asked.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” Kyungsoo said with a soft voice, stroking the elf’s hair out of his face. He could feel how hot his body was, warmer than usual and a layer of sweat that . “Are you healing yourself?”

“Slowly..”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Just.. Just stay here.” He raised a hand and grabbed onto Kyungsoo’s. “For as long as you can, stay by my side.”

“Okay…”

No one knew how long they had been there for, time was not a concept in the dark room. It could have been five minutes or five hours. Either way, Kyungsoo had shifted from his spot and eventually laid beside the elf, nestled closely with their hands still interlocked.

“I’m sorry.” Kai’s voice spoke out in a rasp.

“For what?”

“Everything.”

“Oh shut up—”

“No, you shut up.” Kai said curtly. This took Kyungsoo aback and immediately made him shut his mouth and cheeks flare. Kai was never really one to use language like that.

“It’s over now, and I’m sorry. I’m sorry that it had to be you that I dragged on this journey. I’m sorry that I put you in danger countless of time. I’m sorry that I wasn’t strong enough to keep you safe. I’m sorry that you have gone through all this for nothing.”

“What are you talking about?” Kyungsoo smiled and shook his head slightly.

“There’s no going on from here Kyungsoo! We’re done. Aleyth found me. She found us. There’s nothing we can do anymore.” Kai turned his head away, Kyungsoo could hear his shifting and the slight distance that was caused by his voice. “She’s going to kill us.”

Kyungsoo did not know what to say just yet, sure there was a way out? There’s always been a way out.

“We can just teleport,” He said innocently, trying to add optimism to Kai’s negativity.

“She took my calus. I can’t do anything without it.”

“W-Well! Y-You can’t just…” He sighed and beckoned with his body, he was having a hard time trying to come up with a good enough excuse. “You can’t just give up now!” Kyungsoo tore their hands away and sat up on his side. “No! We came way too fucking far for it to just all end! Absolutely not.” He stood to his feet and began to take parameter of the room.

He started to kick at the walls, banging his fists until they were raw. He screamed for someone to let him out, to talk to him. Maybe he could reason with her, maybe he could sneak out and get Kai’s calus. There was no way he could give up just yet, he was not about to let their time spent gathering the taurns go to waste.

“Kyungsoo, stop. There’s no use.” Kyungsoo ignored the elf and banged harder. “Kyungsoo! Stop.” He raised his voice as the male kept ignoring him. “Kyungsoo!” Kai yelled relentlessly loud, this time sitting up to the best of his ability. The human finally stopped banging about. “There’s no more use. It’s done. We’re done.”

Kyungsoo stood and stared into the darkness, he could hear the defeat ooze from his voice. His cheeks were rosy with strain and brows knit with apprehension. “You… You can’t give up now.” He said very much out of breath.

“We’re going to die. There’s no point in continuing.” He slid back against a wall and let his messy white locks stream over his face, he was thankful for the darkness and inability to see Kyungsoo. How shameful he felt.

Kyungsoo shook his head slowly. “What’s wrong with you?” He waited for a response. “What happened to the heartless savage that slit my throat when we first met? What happened to the intelligent being that got us to and from danger without a second's thought…? The only reason why I stayed was because of you! I thought I could follow you all the way out here because of how you were. You gave me courage to keep moving forward! Me!! A _poor, frail, human_ from a lesser planet. A nobody. And now I came all this way for what? For nothing!” Kyungsoo stepped back and let his back hit the cold metal wall of the room. He slid down with teeth gritted and a most heavy heart.

“You know…” Kyungsoo started again. He was distant, a sadistic smile upon his features as he tried to recall something lost, yet not forgotten. “I had always thought I’d finish up my graduate degree, go for my doctors, get some job that specializes in beetles… I’d be happy mostly, then get a wife, have kids, get a house, finally have a decent source of income. Watch my kids grow up, fight with them, love them, watch one die, and eventually die myself… Just like everyone else. But then, I met you. By some untimely event, I had to meet you. And fall so hard for you.” A tear fell from his eyes that had been growing red. “For with a jerk who saved my life countless of times and showed me things no human could ever dream of.” He wiped the tear from his cheek. “And now, I’m going to die… And because of that, I have courage to even tell you how I feel. ”

“You didn’t fall for me—”

“You know, I wanted to do so many things with you? I wanted to hold your hand and gaze at the stars while you told me all about your home and all the other worlds out there… I wanted to take you to my hometown and introduce you to my mom and show you off “mom, look, I have an alien friend.” I wanted to go on hikes or spontaneous walks at midnight or in the afternoon and show you all the different animals and plants. I wanted to skip work and stay home with you.. Amy.. Raj… And just hang out doing nothing… I wanted to stay up until three in the morning eating Smart Food and ice cream while watching Lord of the Rings…” Kyungsoo stared off, absent minded yet tears falling more frequently. “I wanted to cry with you, the moment Frodo had to leave Sam…” His eyes snapped to Kai. He shrugged his shoulders and slowly shook his head. “I probably love you to be honest... I don’t like the idea of losing you right now.”

Kyungsoo wondered when he was going to finally cry. Kai had already done his crying, now it was Kyungsoo’s turn. A lot had happened in the time span that he and Kai had spent their time together, so much that a sane person would have given up a long time ago. But there was always that strain of “what if”s” floating by his head. Had he left Kai any sooner, he knew he’d regret every second of it. He wanted his tears to stop, he really did, but they were excessive and streamed down his face. It felt like he would turn into a blubbering mess at any moment.

“When you give up, it makes me want to give up. Then I _truly_ have no hope. I’m not nearly as strong or as intelligent as you are. But I just…” He wiped his face of the tears.

Without notice, a body had sat next to Kyungsoo and drew him in close. An arm wrapped around his shoulders and the other held his head against a warm and half bare chest. Kyungsoo turned his head into the fabric and cried harder there, holding onto Kai for dear life and sobbing. At some point Kai had placed his chin on top Kyungsoo’s head and let a few silent tears slip from his own eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Kai had finally broken the silence.

Kyungsoo did not respond and kept on his crying.

“I’m sorry, Kyungsoo.” He had rested his lips against the top of the human’s head.

Kyungsoo took a moment before the realization of what just happened had hit. “You just kissed my head.”

“I have found that humans like this kind of affection.” His voice was soft and much less raspy.

Kyungsoo chuckled in response. “So just lips touching lips is gross?”

“All is gross.” Kyungsoo could hear the smile spread on the elf’s cheeks. “...Kyungsoo?”

“Yes?” His voice was barely audible.

“I want you to know, that I miss the days I spent with you, Raj and Amy. I miss waking up and trying all the different foods you would prepare. I miss that calm period, when it felt like there was nothing wrong and I wasn’t alone… I would like to go back to that time with you again.”

Kyungsoo simply stared at what he figured was Kai’s face in the pitch darkness. “...Oh me too.” He let out breathlessly before going in and hugging Kai again. “Ugh, I hate you so much.”

“But you said you loved me a while ago.”

“Don’t think too much about it.”

Kyungsoo chuckled to himself, Kai seemed just as confused as he was before. But as they sat in the darkness of each other’s arms, heavy noises of banging metal had sounded around them. They both froze and waited to see what would happen. A door had opened from the other side, letting in a steady stream of dull light in. However, no one entered, and no one stood outside the door. Instead, a ray of black shot into the room and engulfed the two into total darkness. They couldn't tell where they were once they were separated, it had felt like they were drowning, suffocating and struggling endlessly to find the surface. Soon, they were released from the black and had been seated on the ground. Kai had been tied to a metal column and Kyungsoo had been tied by his hands and sat furthest away from him. What he saw was a ship’s bridge and the main board down below. A window had been before him, showing the outskirts of a very pale looking planet. But despite the brightness of the planet, it contrasted heavily with the interior of the ship. Black had oozed from every corner, literally, piles of a thick substance had covered the floor and dripped from the side of desks and walls. But what was most unnerving to Kyungsoo was the lack of presence, there was nobody yet lights had been twinkling and showing that the ship was indeed on.

Suddenly, an overbearingly uncomfortable sensation began to fill Kyungsoo’s body. His stomach churned with anxiety and his breath began to eradicate. A dark presence loomed around, coming in as a whole unit and to the center of the bridge, just in front of where Kyungsoo sat. He keeled backwards and watched as a human form began to take shape. Black and dripping in a substance that seemed similar to smoke yet too thick to actually be it. Its eyes were white again, the same figure from before having showed its face.

Kyungsoo found this to be his chance. “Leave us alone!” He yelled as soon as the figure was fully developed. It simply looked down at Kyungsoo.

“ _Hela ke’aith_.” _I will take your tongue_

“Helad al aye, ke’an o’eython.” _Take a hair from his head and I will end your existence_

A sickening chuckle left the creature’s mouth. Kyungsoo simply looked back and forth between the two, not knowing what was happening.

Suddenly a mass of black had shot at Kyungsoo and wrapped itself tight around his throat. Kyungsoo cried out with gasps and gurgles as it lifted him from the ground.

“Al ha’dad!” _Release him!_ Kai screamed at the top of his lungs.

“ _Takuri se’lath anaal meya._ ” _Watch as the light leaves his eyes_ It responded.

Kai fought and fought against his restraints, knowing that any second she would snap Kyungsoo’s frail neck in half. He screamed and yelled at the top of his lungs, but they seemed to fall on deaf ears as she brought Kyungsoo closer to her face. Her mouth was filled with dozens of sharp, black teeth that he could see now that they were close.

“ _Tell my father, hello_.” The nasty vile voice of Aleyth seemed to come out without so much as moving her lips. It was terrifying.

“...love..” Kyungsoo managed somehow despite the pressure secured on his larynx. “...love..” He repeated through his struggled gurgles.

The creature paused for a moment, releasing her grip ever so slightly.

“He… loved..” He tried out again, but the pressure was still too strong. Aleyth then let go and watched as Kyungsoo fell to the floor and barely caught himself. His face was red with the intake of air as he coughed away his disorientation, oh how his neck hurt.

Kyungsoo turned on his side, his head touching the ground as he gripped at his throbbing neck, eyes bloodshot.

“Kyungsoo!” The words rushed out of Kai’s mouth, his heart ramming against his chest. He was so afraid that Aleyth would do something terrible at any moment.

But as Kyungsoo had gathered his wits, he pressed his upper body up. “He.. loved you.” He finally managed, wiping the snot that trickled down his lips.

Aleyth was silent and _very_ observant.

“I know what he did to you.” He coughed, still looking down and trying to feel his neck properly. “That’s something that is absolutely unforgivable. You have every right to be angry, to want to kill him. Hell, I probably would have done it a long time ago.. But why haven’t you already?”

“ _Suffer. Takuri’k anaal hetha’ana._ ” _To watch his love die in pain_

“...She wants me to suffer, by watching the life of something I love, die.” Kai let out after a moment, he seemed distraught by the words.

“Then kill me.” Kyungsoo sat up straight finally and stared her down, his eyes severe.

Aleyth compiled and wrapped her dark appendages around Kyungsoo’s entire body, suspending him back up in the air in a tight position. It made him wince at the pain.

Suddenly, a white orb had been presented to him, Aleyth had the last orb in her possession.

“We need that!” Kyungsoo yelled and a smirk widened against her diabolical face.

Instead, the white orb was engulfed in black and had been crushed into several little pieces.

“No…” Kyungsoo snapped up at her, “Do you even know what’s going on?! Do you even realize what we’re trying to do? Without that orb, the universe will perish! Everything will die, you’ll die!”

“ _I was born to die._ ” Her inhuman voice responded, something unsettling spoke to Kyungsoo that Aleyth was not the one talking.

“I get that, I understand that you have survived an inordinate amount of time. But that must mean something. And it must mean something that Kai hasn’t died yet. Maybe you weren’t supposed to kill him just yet, not until the universe has been saved by Carn.”

Aleyth snickered. “ _Death becomes all. Sinners and righteous._ ”

“Okay _maybe_. But I’ve been finding out that things don’t just happen to happen. There’s a reason why they happen. You keep hesitating for a reason, and that’s because you don’t have the guts to actually kill him—” Aleyth tightened her grip and Kyungsoo gasped out, it was painful.

“Aleyth.” Kai called out. “Mo’onen.” _I’m sorry_

Aleyth lessened her grip.

“Mo’onen elanin.” _I am sorry a thousand times_ Kai bowed his head. “Mo’on ke ahanon. Al’hadad asen. Al telas.” _My forgiveness could never be asked of you, but you must let him go. He is innocent_

“ _Al elan’ona_.” _You love him_

“Ahré.” _I do_

“ _Tal’ah se’lat. Ela thach, Ke’thach o’yethon vehn et._ ” _You both should die. Break my heart and I will break your body and soul_

“I don’t know what’s going on! But please! Just at least let Kai finish, let him do what he has to do. I’ll stay as collateral or something, just please… Please let him go.”

“Al nogun. Al ha’dad akarth. Ahré’el.” _Don’t listen to him. Let him go and let him finish. He can do it_

“I know he’s telling you to let me go, but I can’t do shit on my own. It has to be him.”

“Manun.” _He’s lying_

“I know his face enough to know that is desperation. Ignore him—”

“Al ha’dad!” _Let him go!_

“—let him go.”

“Do you love him?” Aleyth finally asked.

Kyungsoo nodded. “I do. I don’t know how or fucking why. But I am completely and utterly in love with him.”

Silence had impregnated the room again, just the white noise of the bay had filled their ears.

Maybe something in Aleyth was still human, not all of her was completely taken over because she stalled longer than usual. Maybe that humanity that Allve people possessed so similarly to humans of Earth was what kept her alive in the darkness of the Allve magic. But as she gently placed Kyungsoo on the ground and the dark mass of her body dissipated, it revealed a woman dressed in black. Her hair was thick and long and wavy as it trailed her body. Two strands of hair at her forehead were pinned back, as braids fell just in front of her long pointed ears. Her iris’s were black with flecks of gold still shimmering in them. Her skin was a kissed shade of chocolate, and a black lightning shaped tattoo trailing around her face and sneaking under her clothes. Her lips were full and dark, even the light blue tattoos that once sported her cheeks were dark in color. Her eyelashes were long and black, her makeup dark and smoked as it faded on the rest of her face. It at least looked like makeup, if it was, Kyungsoo did not know. What he did know was that she was completely different from the girl in the memories Kai had shown him so long ago. Albeit, she was still a heavenly sight to behold.

A gasp emitted from his lips at her appearance and how beautiful she was.

Her eyes flickered down to the broken orb, then back to Kyungsoo. Her face was stoic, much like Kai’s used to be. But a deep-rooted sadness haunted her every feature, it pained Kyungsoo to look at her for too long.

“I am Hekai. But I remember love.” Her voice was less altered now, soft even. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, loud enough to fill the whole room. “I remember love of Kai. Love of Rotai. Love of father.” She let the air out and looked back at the two. “But I remember pain. Pain of death. Pain of father, Rotai...Kai. I remember everything. I will not forget.” She focused her eyes on Kyungsoo, “But sometime… Love stronger than pain.”

Kyungsoo’s brows furrowed at the sudden words. Especially when she turned around and her body disappeared in a cloud of black and transported to the deck below. She stood and stared out the window with hands behind her back and her black appendages moving about the main board of controls.

Kyungsoo quickly ran over to Kai and held his face in his hands, they spoke quietly and quickly to make sure they were okay. But through their movements, Kyungsoo brought their faces together and kissed him full on the lips. Nothing more than just pressed, gloriously soft lips on each other’s. When he had realized what he had done, he ripped away and saw how Kai’s eyes had been wide and mouth agape at the disconnection.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I forgot you don’t even like kissing. And you.. Fuck, you don’t even like me!”

Kai still did not say a word and simply looked back and forth between his eyes.

Kyungsoo’s cheeks were bright red, but as the silence between them was drawn out and the ship began to move he chuckled. “I think I’ve officially seen the most emotion from your face now.”

A black appendage had shot out of nowhere and pinned Kyungsoo down, both to the ground and to the column Kai was attached to. The ship was then thrusted into a hyperspace mode, bright lights of stars all melding into one as they jumped on to the next destination.

֍ ҉ ֎

Aleyth had dropped them off at Krakatos. Well, she had stopped the ship at the planet, but before she could release them to the planet, her drive for revenge eventually started to take over. She had told Kyungsoo that her need for revenge was strong, it was what fueled the darkness within her anyways. So, as she gave back the orbs (including the newly crushed one), all of Kai’s weapons and his calus. She had slowly been turning back into the raging beast that wanted Kai dead. So, Kyungsoo quickly put Kai’s device on his wrist and teleported the two of them to the inner sanctum of the planet. Kai had been bound by his hands still and unable to help Kyungsoo much, but he followed on foot through the blue lit passages.

Kyungsoo’s small legs strummed hard against the metal floors, listening to the directions that Kai would throw at him. Even as the sentinels joined them as guards, his heart raced with an overwhelming panic.

When they arrived at the center of the room with the large circular table, their robot friend had been floating over the map off to the side.

“You have arrived.” Its mechanical voice sounded and quickly rushed to them. “You have all the orbs.”

“Yes.” Kyungsoo said much out of breath.

“Place them in their respective spots. With haste.” Its voice made the numerical sounds it naturally produced, “—has just devoured the neighboring system. It is upon this planet; if we cannot defeat it in the hour, I am afraid there is no hope for us.”

“No pressure.” Kyungsoo mumbled and quickly walked over to the table. “So how do I work this?”

“Place the gems into the ports. Strongest starts the middle, following rings descend by power. Weakest on the outer edges.”

“Gottcha.” Kyungsoo nodded and hopped onto the table. Immediately the hum and glow from before had started up. From the new angle he could see the circular pattern in rings. He reached into his bag and rummaged for the gem, but as he did so, screams of the rat like creatures had come from the outside. Sentinels were quick at work, another working diligently to remove the chains on Kai’s hands. Allve craftsmanship was rather intricate.

“The black one, that is the strongest.” Kai had yelled from where he stood.

Kyungsoo pulled out the black orb and placed it into the center. The glow and hum intensified from the placement significantly.

“Okay, now which one?” Kyungsoo said as he dumped the bag out and began to rummage through.

“The green one!” Kai yelled again. Kyungsoo quickly got up onto the table and placed the gem into one of the molds in the second ring.

Once Kai had been freed of his restraints he ran to the bag and began to sort them by power; he could feel their energy much stronger than Kyungsoo could.

The light blue came next, yellow then purple, red and the dark blue. However, as Kyungsoo placed the gems in the indents, it seemed to have no effect on the table. No light grew brighter, nor did anything change about the room once all were placed. Master Guard knew that there was something wrong with the set up, but his program was hidden from the knowledge. A malfunction in his wiring after years of service.

Kyungsoo and Kai spent the next half hour trying to figure out the order of gems, not knowing where the descending order needed to go. When they had realized they had spent so much time on the order, Kyungsoo nearly screamed and ripped his hair out.

He fell to the ground and let his back slump against the side of the table Kai had still been messing around with. He was determined to figure out the lexicon. But as Kyungsoo sat in his spot, thinking about what they could do, he had raised a hand to rub the back of his head. But as he raised his hand it had hit something jutting out from the side of the table. It jutted out like a scoop, like a slot machine that had candy pour out once a coin was turned in it. It was then that he suddenly remembered the crushed crystal that still sat at the bottom of the bag. He got to his feet and ran for the bag, reaching in and grabbing the shards with his bare fingers. It was not a smart idea as his fingers were pricked and bleed from the scratches. Though, he ignored the pain and ran back to the port and dumped the small particles of the gem.

Suddenly, the table grew even brighter. The hum was so loud it began to vibrate. Kai watched as a stream of light followed the circles and down a thin stream to where Kyungsoo was standing. Kyungsoo watched as the light streamed into the floor and lit up in various of other angled directions. It quickly engulfed the room and spread further throughout the facility, unseen to their eyes. In the ceiling a light began to generate, strong and nearly blinding the more they looked at it. What they could not see was how much further in the earth the machine had still been working. Vast halls of immense size lit up and began to move as the machines all began to work. Essentially, it was a gun. Warming up to send out a blast large enough and long enough to remove anything from existence.

As the two waited for something more to happen, the walls began to shake and pieces of debris fell from the ceiling. The creatures howled outside the door and began to scurry far from the room, the sentinels chased them off.

Master Guard seemed to try and talk to them, but as more debris fell from the ceiling one had fallen and crushed it.

Kyungsoo found his way beside Kai and held onto him tightly, watching as the room fell apart.

“What’s happening?!” Kyungsoo yelled.

“This structure is too old, its collapsing with the power of the gems! We have to get out of here!”

Kyungsoo looked to his wrist and quickly began to fiddle around with the mechanics. The tremors became more violent and caused him to press all kinds of wrong buttons. A bright light began to emit from the hallway, so bright that Kyungsoo nearly lost focus. Sweat began to poor down his face in anticipation, but his nerves were distracting him from properly using the device. Kai had steadied the human’s arm and began to type quick items into it.

A loud thunder had clapped and the room shook so violently that the two fell from the table and tumbled onto the ground.

The gun had fired.

The room turned off, no light emitted from the gems.

Their time had run out.

 

 

֍ ҉ ֎

 

From another planet, the destruction could be seen.

A bright light of an explosion had lit up the day sky. The planet had been close enough for all to see such terror. It was like slow motion the way the planet had split in half, a bright white light shooting out and disappearing into nothing.

Chan had sat out on his front porch when the light had caught his eye. He stood up, watching it with terrified eyes. His father, mother and younger brother had joined him, each of them terrified at the sudden light.

What they could not see was the beam of light and how it had been directly aimed at Carn.

The dark matter of unending nothing was real. It had been pierced in its face with the strong beam of light. If it could possess a face, it would have been where the light relentlessly pierced it. The darkness fought against the light, trying to consume it rather than let it destroy it, not knowing anything else but the acting of consumption. The light had proved to be much stronger. Carn was being pushed back. As the light rammed into it, the beast of Carn had dug into itself, getting caught in the ray of light and slowly disintegrating with each passing second. It was not a quick process, it was long and arduous. One that took close to five Earth years to complete, but as the planet of Krakatos crumbled into an explosion of molten nothing, Carn grew smaller and smaller. What had been consumed by it did not return, instead, a series of small explosion had exploded like beautiful fireworks. Like that, knew dimensions had begun producing again, the universe began to establish a new birth. Life of galaxies was forming once more, suns and stars alike had formed, masses of craters and debris collided and would begin cycles of life development all over again. Dark portions of the sky that seemed vacant of stars began producing new colors and shapes of stars. Millions of light years would only reveal what would become of the newly created parts of the universe. What was important had been the moments of Carn’s destruction by Krakatos.

Many planets could see a faint light from where they were in the universe. Even Earth could see the light some hundreds of years later, for a span of time. But to them it would look like a small dot of a new star.

Aleyth’s ship had traveled far enough from the planet to watch from a safe distance. Her eyes baring down on the light as it bore into Carn. Lone on her ship’s bridge, she gazed upon the sight.

Even Xanin himself smirked upon the sight of the desolation. In his halls of great, he watched the fall of Carn. Though Carn was not fully destroyed, no, it was weakened. Rendered back to that small entity it was when it was first created, when the ray of energy had finally gotten through with it. For a time, all would be fine in the universe.

 

And as you read further, you wish to know of the fate of the two protagonists. You would be relieved to know that they were safe. In the country of Alle, upon beds of comfort that seemed to feel like pure clouds. Despite his banishment, Kai had pleaded for the health of Kyungsoo to be treated. Both of their bodies suffered significant burns, but as Kyungsoo had cut himself on the white gems, his body had been having a severe reaction to the power.

The sky had been lit by the explosion in Alle as well, not nearly as bright as the planet Chan lived, but bright enough to light up the night sky.

For two days, Kyungsoo laid in bed asleep. His body recovering from the injuries in the grand castle of Kai’s father, being treated by only the best of what the people of Alle had to offer.

Kai stayed by Kyungsoo’s side through night and day. Holding his hand or sitting eagerly, waiting for him to show some sign of waking up.

When the day came that Kyungsoo opened his eyes and took a deep sigh, Kai had sat on the edge of his seat and whispered soft words to the male. His voice sweet and gentle to ease the human back to consciousness. Kyungsoo could do nothing but smile at the elf, he had felt nothing but bliss being able to stare at his face again. He truly thought that while he was asleep he might have been dead. But being able to wake up and greet the worried face of someone so perfect made his heart swell.

Kyungsoo had been bedridden for five days before he was allowed to walk and see the world outside of his room. A world Kai had been waiting eagerly to show him, to take him to every beautiful spot in the land.

But on the first night that Kyungsoo could be free of his nurses (as he liked to call them), and was able to walk around with Kai alone, the two had found themselves on a balcony. The halls of the castle had been open, windows almost nonexistent. Gold seemed to be the recurring color to Kyungsoo’s eye, shimmering and elegant as it went. Plant life littered every corner, even trees stood tall on the sides of the balcony. The view was to absolutely die for. A perfect image of the city scape and all its bright lights glowing golden, blue or green. It felt like a rainbow of colors before him. The ocean had shimmered with both the moon and light from the sky, dancing on the buildings as white birds flew about the rooftops. They glided easily with their featherless wings and long tails. Tropical like trees littered every corner of the city, a cool breeze brushing through them.

Kyungsoo pressed his hands against the railing of the balcony and took a deep breath of the fresh air. It smelt different than the oceans on Earth. This one was sweet and reminded him heavily of Kai. It was a good smell.

“I could get used to this.” Kyungsoo let out with closed eyes and a smile.

Kai said not a word and simply watched Kyungsoo from a few feet behind.

Kyungsoo leaned over the railing, it had just reached his ribcage and allowed him to lean further into the wind that danced around him.

“You get to see this every day?” He asked over the sounds of the city below.

“Not anymore.” His voice came soft.

“Oh, that’s right. Banishment.” Kyungsoo turned and found Kai watching him with stern eyes, a facial expression he could not figure out fixed upon his features. “What’s the matter?”

“...I don’t know what to do after you do not need us.”

Kyungsoo let his eyes roam Kai’s body, his outfit changed into something more modest.

“You could always tell your father that Xanin picked you to be his champion and essentially you saved the universe.” Kyungsoo leaned his back against the railing, his arms spread out and elbows bent.

Kai looked down and chuckled to himself, “I could do that. But it’s more complicated than that.” He looked up and took a step closer to Kyungsoo.

“I’m sure you can figure something out… Aleyth isn’t following you right now, and you’re your father’s last heir. There has to be something.” Kyungsoo frowned. “You just have to let me chill here for like a couple months. I would very much like to get to know this place.” He quickly added a smile to hide the obvious hurt in his chest.

“What will you do after that?” Kai stepped closer again, his golden shoes trailing his legs in a very enticing manner.

“I-I dunno.. Ask you to take me back to Earth or something.” He shrugged. “It’s not like we need to be together anymore. We did what Xanin asked, we saved the universe, we stopped Carn for now...”

“ _You_ saved the universe.” Kai had said quite seriously, this caught Kyungsoo off guard.

“What? N-No! We both did, we both got the gems and we both put them in the—”

Kai had closed the space between them and pressed his lips against Kyungsoo’s. The shock had been quite evident on Kyungsoo’s face, especially when Kai began to move his lips and pull the human against his hips. It was easy to respond, giving in to the mesh of lip and feeling the soft touch of each other. It was not wet, but just right. Slow and smooth had it been, going on for a while and catching the eye of a few guards and maids as they trotted on by. They were repulsed by the actions but kept to themselves nonetheless.

When they pulled away, Kyungsoo had relaxed his grip on the elf’s shirt and noticed how out of breath he was.

“You hate kissing.” Kyungsoo said with eyes still closed, their lips lingering close to one another.

“I like the way you taste.” Kai had said and pressed their foreheads together. “And I know that humans enjoy this kind of contact.”

“Please tell me that’s not the only reason why you want to kiss me.” Kyungsoo breathed.

“No.” Kai raised his hands to place on Kyungsoo’s cheeks. “You are loud, bad mouthed, and sometimes rude. You are frail, weak and can hardly fend for yourself outside of Earth. You lack manners and are one of the most stubborn beings I have ever met.”

Kyungsoo’s face began to fall with each passing description.

“But you have shown me a kindness that I cannot forget. The way your cheeks glow when I hug you and the way your eyes grow wide when looking upon my face makes it hard to leave your feelings unnoticed. You are so small and my instinct to protect you is great. And despite how loud and rude you are, I like that you soften for me. I like that you would stand your ground even if it meant for your death… You may be weak, but your heart is so strong, Kyungsoo.”

Kyungsoo literally felt like dying, well, cry really. His mortification was honestly through the roof.

“Even if it was my journey to save the universe on my own, I never would have been able to complete it without you. You gave me the strength to keep moving forward… None of this was possible without you by my side.”

Kyungsoo looked up to find Kai’s golden eyes boring down on him so tenderly.

“Kyungsoo. I don’t want our companionship to _just end_. If you would… I would like you to stay by my side.”

“Do you like me?” Kyungsoo blurted out. He had so many racing thoughts that the only way he could manage anything was to say, at least, _something_. Though, he hadn’t meant those to be his first words.

Kai nodded against his forehead. “Yes. I am beyond fond of your existence and would rather spend a lifetime banished with you, than alone, here.”

Kyungsoo let out a laugh, breathless and almost a bit embarrassed.

“Kyungsoo.”

Kai’s voice drew the human back to him.

“I love you.”

Kyungsoo smiled with such vigor that he smiled into their next kiss. He had pressed their lips back together, this time wrapping his arms around the elf’s neck to deepen it.

“Kai… Prince of Alle.” Kyungsoo said breathlessly once they pulled away and had been wrapped in each other’s arms. “Thank you for one of the most intense and unforgettable experiences of my life.” He smiled and pecked the elf’s lips. “I think, that no matter where we go from here, we’re stuck with each other. Just based on these experiences alone, we have a special bond now. So, you're stuck with me whether you like it or not.”

The two laughed joyously, oh it was a merry sound for all who had happened to hear.

Kyungsoo brought a hand up and pressed it gently against Kai’s clothed chest. Kai had looked down with a questioning look.

“You probably can’t feel it but I’m sending you all my memories and emotions,” His eyes were closed and his ears were red, but he was damn well focused on what he was doing.

“Elan ha’vehn.” Kai had whispered as he held onto Kyungsoo’s hand and closed his eyes. He could not feel anything, but it was the earnest attempt that made his heart fill with mirth. “To bind one’s soul is a heavy burden when you are not Allve. Are you sure this is what you ask for?”

“Wait, it’s really possible for us to do that?” Kyungsoo opened his eyes wide and stared at the elf.

“I don’t know. I’d have to investigate more… I would rather not risk anything now, just in case it is not healthy for you.”

“Oh!” Kyungsoo could feel his whole face grow hot. “No! I didn’t mean now.. Or, well, ever. I was just trying to be… Cute. It’s like kinda too soon for that, that’s like getting married right after you tell someone you love them for the first time. Oh, no. Nope, we should take this slow.” He laughed uncomfortably.

“If that is what you wish, then so shall it be.” Kai had cupped Kyungsoo’s face again and pressed their foreheads together. It was so calming to just stand there and finally not have to worry about a catastrophe coming for them.

“I’m going to open my trial with my father and the Court again… No matter the outcome, I know that when I’m with you, I’ll be fine.”

“Eh, I can’t say the same.” Kyungsoo shrugged. “But I’ll still love you anyways.” He quickly hugged the elf and pressed his head against his chest.

“That was a joke.” Kai stated with a hint of smug knowing.

“Only half.” Kyungsoo chuckled.

The two giggled and laughed as they stood on the balcony. They had stayed in that position for a very long time, swaying back and forth as the wind passed them by. Kai stood tall with his arms wrapped securely around Kyungsoo’s being, his white hair flowing ever so gracefully in the wind.

It was a sight to behold, as two hearts beat strong against one another. Maybe not as one, but side by side in a perfect sort of harmony.

They had just stopped one of the most vicious things that the universe had to offer, and they were in love. It was plenty safe to say that they felt like nothing was going to stop them.


End file.
